Press Release
Application Fees for Nonimmigrant Visas to Increase
On January 1, 2008
Effective January 1, 2008, the application fee for a U.S. nonimmigrant visa will increase from US$100 to US$131. This increase allows the Department of State to recover the costs of security and other enhancements to the nonimmigrant visa application process.
Applicants who paid the current US$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 US$100 application fee and appear for visa interviews after January 31, 2008 must pay the difference -- US$31 -- before they will be interviewed.
The Department is required by law to recover the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas through the collection of the visa application fee. Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the US$100 application fee is lower than the actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. In fact, the US$100 fee was already lower than the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas when the fee was reviewed as a part of the cost of service study in 2004. The Department has been absorbing the additional cost. We are now collecting 10 fingerprints from each applicant, and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allows us to do this. The application fee has increased twice since 9/11, the last time in 2002.
The Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia has already scheduled visa appointments through the end of 2007, thus applicants who have not yet made a visa appointment will be subject to the new fee.
Bogotá, D.C., 14 de diciembre de 2007