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Visitors to the United States will soon need to pay a $250 (refundable) fee when a provision of the Trump administration’s recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act goes into effect. The fee will apply to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas to enter and it cannot be waived. The purpose of this fee, how to get it refunded, and when it will start are all questions without clear answers at present.
The fee will be at least $250 during the 2025 US fiscal year (this runs from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025). The secretary of Homeland Security is free to set the fee higher; it will be adjusted for inflation in subsequent years. The “visa integrity fee” is to be paid by all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas. This includes tourists, business travelers, and international students. Some travelers, such as those from Australia, Japan, and lots of European countries may not need visas according to the Visa Waiver Program. The fee is in addition to any others that visitors may need to pay to enter the United States.
There is still a lot to be determined. No guidance has been given as to how to claim a refund of the $250 fee. One of the goals of the fee is said to discourage those who overstay their visas. CNBC reports that “an estimated 42% of the approximately 11 million unauthorized population living in the United States entered the country legally, but overstayed their period of admission.” We’ll see what impact this has on visitors.
In addition to the “visa integrity fee,” the United States will also raise the Form I-94 fee (the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) record of arrival and exit) from $6 to $24 and add a $100 fee for asylum seekers. The $100 fee seems harsh considering many seeking asylum have little or no money and need assistance with escaping violence, political persecution, religious discrimination, etc.
Anthony’s Take: I’m not sure this fee will do anything but deter tourists from wanting to visit the United States. There are still lots of questions that need to be answered.
(Image Credits: BalkansCat and Tennessee Witney via iStock.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
3 comments
So stupid. Not only will the US probably lose more money than they get from this stupid fee by losing more visitors, other countries will just return the favor by creating one of their own stupid additional fees for US visitors to visit them. And I don’t blame them. Creating debt and losing/squandering money and making themselves wealthy are the only things our government bureaucracy is really good at.
Does this fee apply to the visitors who already have b1,2 visa or is it charged at the visa application point after the visa is issued?
Okay, I love this blog but yours has been doing what Matthew’ (Klint) did until he thankfully got it addressed. I read everything through a feed since I can’t always get to websites. NONE of your posts are full posts. To read them, we have to go to your page. This inherently makes all of us read less. I find I choose ONLY the ones I think I am surely interested in. Full feed means I read almost everything. I hope this was an accident or feed change that can be corrected. I know many of us don’t follow feeds we can’t read. Help?