US tourist, and student visas to get costlier from May 30: The visa fee for US tourist/business (B1/B2), student, and exchange visitor visas will be raised on May 30, 2023. According to a US Department of State communication about increases in certain non-immigrant visa application (NIV) processing fees, the fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2), as well as other non-petition based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will rise from $160 to $185. Certain petition-based non-immigrant visas for temporary workers (H, L, O, P, Q, and R categories) will see a fee increase from $190 to $205. Treaty traders, treaty investors, and treaty applicants in a specialty occupation (E category) will pay a fee of $315 instead of $205.
Other consular fees, such as the waiver of the two-year residency requirement fee for certain exchange visitors, are unaffected by this rule.
Fee payments for visa interviews made on or after October 1 of the previous year are valid for 365 days from the date the fee payment invoice is issued. Fees paid by applicants before October 1, 2022, will continue to be valid until September 30 of this year. As a result, applicants must schedule an interview or apply for an interview waiver before September 30, 2023.
The fees for most non-petition-based NIVs were previously updated in 2012, while the fees for certain non-immigrant visas were updated in 2014.
Categories of US Visas with increased costs
These increases were published in the Federal Register on March 28, 2023, and they will go into effect on May 30, 2023.
Aside from the B1/B2, BCCs, student, and exchange visas, the US Department of State announced that some other petition-based NIV categories will face fee increases. These are temporary worker classifications — H, L, O, P, Q, and R — and the fees will be raised by USD 15 (INR 1,229). This means applicants who previously paid USD 190 (INR 15,561) will now have to pay USD 205 (INR 16,790). Furthermore, the fee for an E-category visa, which is intended for treaty traders, investors, and applicants in specialized occupations, will be raised by USD 110 (INR 9,011). The visa will now cost USD 315 (INR 25,805) rather than USD 205 (INR 16,790).
According to the US Department of State’s website, visa fees are determined after studying the cost of these services and are based on the actual cost of providing non-immigrant visa services. The Department annually calculates the cost of providing consular services, including visa services, using an Activity-Based Costing (ABC) methodology, according to the statement.
According to Julie Stufft, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services, the State Department’s goal for this year is to issue 1 million visas, which would be more than the pre-pandemic number.
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