$35 FCC application fee in the Federal Register - does NOT take effect yet.
The final rule change was published in the Federal Register today March 19, 2021:
Federal Register -schedule-of-application-fees-of-the-commissions-rules
Even though the document has an effective date of
April 19, the Amateur Radio fees will
not yet be required.
The fee changes outlined in this order
will nottake effect until the requisite notice has beenprovided to Congress, the FCC’s informationtechnology systems and internal procedures havebeen updated, and the Commission publishesnotice(s) in the Federal Register announcing theeffective date. This will most likely be
in thesummer.
The following application types will be subjected to the fee when the rule finally takes effect.
New, Modification (Upgrade and Sequential call sign change), Renewal, and Vanity callsign requests will be subjected to the $35 application fee. There will be no fee for Administrative Updates (email or mailing address changes, name changes).
The instructions on the FCC Fee Schedule are for the applicant to pay application fees directly to FCC via the License Manager System or Fee Filer System. VECs and VE teams will not have to collect the $35 fee at the session.
The ARRL VEC exam fee will remain at $15.
When the FCC application fee eventually takes effect, new and upgrade applicants will pay the $15 exam session fee to the VE team as usual and then pay the $35 application fee directly to the FCC.