The U.S. Department of State has announced a world-wide increase in the nonimmigrant visa application processing fee, also called the Machine-Readable Visa fee. The new rule establishes a tiered structure with separate fees for different visa categories. Under the new fee structure, the charge for visa application fees will vary according to the type of visa requested.
The Department of State is increasing the fee to ensure sufficient resources to cover the increasing 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 that are more complicated and require more in-depth consideration than most other categories of nonimmigrant visas U.S. law requires the Department of State to attempt to recover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas through the collection of the application fees.
Under the new structure, applicants for B1/B2 tourist and business visitor visas and all student and exchange-visitor visas, would pay a fee of US $140, an increase of US $9. Applicants for petition-based visas, such as the R visa for religious occupations will pay an application fee of US $150.
Procedures for payment of visa fees at the Embassy will not change. All fees must be paid at the time of the interview. The exchange rate for dollars to kip is $1 to 10.000 kip.
For more information on the fee increases and to review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), please visit the Department of State website via the following link:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/05/142155.htm. Send email inquiries to [email protected].
