The United States Embassy on Monday announced that the Department of State will adjust visa processing fees effective Friday, April 13.
A statement from the Public Affairs Section of the Embassy in Accra said the fees for most non-immigrant visa applications and Border Crossing Cards would increase, while all immigrant visa processing fees would decrease.
The Department is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing visas through the collection of application fees.
For some reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas.
It said the non-immigrant visa fee increase would support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities, as well as additional staffing required to meet increased visa demand.
“Although most categories of non-immigrant visa processing fees will increase, the fee for E visas (treaty-traders and treaty-investors) and K visas (for fiancé (e)s of US citizens) will decrease.
The statement said the non-immigrant visa processing fees are as follows: Tourist, Business, Transit, Crew Member, Student, Exchange Visitor, and Journalist visas increases from $140 to $160.
Petition-Based visas (H, L, O, P, Q, and R) from $150 to $190.
Treaty Investor and Trader visas (E) reduced from $390 to $270; Finance (e) visas (K) from $350 to $240; Border Crossing Cards (age 15 and older) increased from $140 to $160; Border Crossing Cards (under age 15) from $14 to $15.
The statement said because of re-allocation of costs associated with immigrant visas, all categories of immigrant visa processing fees will decrease therefore, immigrant visa processing fees are; Immediate Relative and Family Preference Applications from $330 to $230; Employment-Based Applications from $720 to $405; Other Immigrant Visa Applications from $305 to $220; Diversity Visa Programme Fee from $440 to $330; Determining Returning Resident Status from $380 to $275.
It said the proposed fees were published in the Federal Register on Monday, and would take effect in 15 days.
To view the interim final rule, visit www.regulations.gov.
The statement said comments would be accepted until 60 days after publication, at that time, the Department would consider the public comments, and the published final rule would include the Department’s response to any comments received.
It said fee information might be found on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website, travel.state.gov, and on the websites of US embassies and consulates.**
