PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT ON FEE INCREASE ON US VISA APPLICATION

Effective January 1, 2008, the application fee for a U.S. nonimmigrant visa will increase from $100 to $131.

This increase allows the Department to recover the costs of security and other enhancements to the non-immigrant visa application (NIV) process.  This increase applies both to non-immigrant visas issued on machine-readable foils in passports and to border crossing cards (BCCs) issued to certain applicants in Mexico.

Applicants who paid the prior $100 application fee before January 1 will be processed only if they are scheduled and appear for a visa interview before January 31.  Applicants who paid the prior $100 application fee and appear for visa interviews after January 31, 2008 must pay the difference -- $31 -- before they can be interviewed.

Under U.S. law, agencies are expected to recover the costs of providing services insofar as possible.  The increase in this fee is necessary for the Department to recover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas and border crossing cards.  New security-related measures have caused the cost of providing NIVs and BCCs to rise significantly.  In addition, the Department's previous cost study in 2004 showed that the $100 fee was insufficient to permit the Department to recover the costs of providing Machine Readable Visas (MRVs) and BCCs.  The Department nevertheless made a decision to keep the fee at $100 and has been absorbing the excess MRV and BCC costs since then.  With costs rising even further due to the new security measures in place, the Department can no longer afford to continue absorbing the excess cost of providing MRVs and BCCs.

The Department of State bases fees for consular services on the actual costs of providing those services to individuals.  Those costs have risen since the visa application fee was last increased, in 2002.

Among the increased costs the fee increase will account for are new security-related charges for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’S) ten-fingerprint and name check requirements.  Because the Department must begin paying for the FBI's services starting January 1, 2008, it must raise the MRV/BCC fee at the same time in order to avoid a significant shortfall that could jeopardize its ability to finance the new visa-related security measures.

Likewise, fees for immigrant visas will increase by $20, to $355, beginning on January 1, 2008, to cover similar cost increases in immigrant visa services.

The Department plans to complete its next cost of service study for consular services in 2008 and will review this fee again at that time.