Visa Fee Increase

Nonimmigrant Visa Application Fees to Increase June 4

On May 20, 2010, the Department of State published an interim final rule in the Federal Register to increase the nonimmigrant visa application fees, also called the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fees.  The interim final rule also establishes a tiered structure with separate fees for different nonimmigrant visa categories.  The new fees are scheduled to go into effect on June 4, 2010. 

The Department is increasing fees to ensure sufficient resources to cover the rising cost of processing nonimmigrant visas.

The new, tiered fee structure was created to cover the higher unit costs for processing certain categories of nonimmigrant visas.  The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas through the collection of application fees.  For a number of reasons, including new security enhancements, the $131 fee set on January 1, 2008, no longer covers the current, actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas.

Under the new schedule of fees, applicants for all visas that are not petition-based, including B1/B2 tourist and business visitor visas and all student and exchange visitor (F, M and J) visas, will pay a fee of $140.

Applicants for petition-based visas will pay and application fee of $150.  These categories include: H (temporary worker or trainee), L (intra-company transferee), O (alien with extraordinary ability), P (athlete, artist or entertainer), Q (international cultural exchange visitors) and R (religious worker).

The application fee for K (fiancé/ee) visas will be $350. 

Applicants will pay the full fee in effect on the day they apply.

For additional information regarding the new visas fees, please refer to the U.S. State Department website www.travel.state.gov

Please click here to find out more information on how to pay the visa application fees.