Increased processing fees for US visas by April 13

United States, 3rd April: The US is all set to introduce increased US visa processing fees with effect from 13th April, 2012.

This has been revealed by the US Embassy.

Changes in US non-immigrant visa fees--Giving details about the hike in US non-immigrant visa fee, the US State Department (DOS) said an increase in non-immigrant visa applications will be there. In addition, visa fee for Border Crossing Cards will also go up.

Processing fee for US Petition-based visas including H, L, P, O, Q and R visas will go up to $190 from the earlier $150.

With effect from 13th April this year, fee for Border Crossing Cards (meant for applicants aged below 15) will go up from $14 to $15. And fee for Border Crossing Cards (meant for applicants aged 15 and above) will now be $160 as against $140. An increase in application processing fee for US religious visas, US work visas and US performance visas will be there taking the current fee from $150 to $190.

The increased US non-immigrant visa processing fee will go towards recovering processing visa costs. So, fee hike will help in expansion and addition of international facilities apart from recruiting additional staff for meeting the increased demand for US visas.

The current US non-immigrant visa fees does not cover the cost of processing of such visas.

Decreased processing fee for some US visa categories--Meanwhile, processing fees for US immigrant visas will go down, the DOS clarified. And, some categories of US non-immigrant visas will witness a decline, the DOS stated. These include processing fee for US E-visas (treaty-investors and treaty-traders) and US K-visas (meant for fiancé/fiancées of US citizens).

Processing fee for US Fiancé (e) visas (K-Visas) will now be $240 from the earlier $350. And processing fee for US E-visas Treaty Investor and Trader visas will witness a decline from $390 to $270.

As against the earlier fee of $330 for US family-based visas, the new fee will be $230.

And the fee for US Visa Lottery (or US Diversity Visa Program) will see a decline from the $440 to $330 per person. New fee for Determining Returning Resident Status will be $275 as against the current fee of $380.