U.S. visas fees to increase starting Jan 1

Effective January 1, 2008, the application fee for a U.S. non-immigrant visa will increase from $100 to $131, the U.S. Embassy in Moldova said in a press release. According to the cited source, this increase will allow the U.S. Department of State to recover the costs of security and other enhancements to the non-immigrant visa application process. Applicants who paid the prior $100 application fee before January 1 will be processed only if they are scheduled for a visa interview before January 31. The applicants who appear for visa interviews after January 31, 2008 must pay the difference of $31 before they will be interviewed. The Department is required by law to recover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas. Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the prior $100 visa fee is lower than the actual cost of processing visas. Visa processing procedures now require 10 fingerprints from each applicant, and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allow us to do this, the press release reads. The application fee has increased twice since 9/11, the last time in 2002.