The State Department is increasing fees to ensure sufficient resources to cover the rising cost of processing nonimmigrant visas. This increase applies both to nonimmigrant visas placed in passports and to border crossing cards issued to certain applicants in Mexico.

The new, tiered fee structure was created to cover the higher unit costs for processing certain categories of nonimmigrant visas that are more complicated and require more in-depth consideration than most other categories of nonimmigrant visas. The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing nonimmigrant visas through the collection of the application fees. For a number of reasons, including new security enhancements, the $131 fee set on Jan. 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 would pay an application fee of $150. These categories include:

• H visa for temporary workers and trainees
• L visa for intracompany transferees
• O visa for aliens with extraordinary ability
• P visa for athletes, artists and entertainers
• Q visa for international cultural exchange visitors
• R visa for religious occupations

The application fee for K visas for fiance(e)s of U.S. citizens would be $350. The fee for E visas for treaty-traders and treaty-investors would be $390.

The Department will not begin collecting the new proposed fees until it considers public comments and publishes a final rule. To view the proposed rule and to submit comments, go to www.regulations.gov.

For more information on the proposed fee increase, go to www.travel.state.gov/news/press/press_4603.html.