U.S announces increase in visa fees

May 25, 2010 News

Beginning June 4, the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, along with all U.S Embassies worldwide, will increase the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fees to ensure sufficient resources to meet the increasing cost of processing non-immigrant visas (NIVs).
The new MRV fee for most visitor visa classes will be $28,000 ($140); for K (fiancé) visas the fee will now be $70,000 ($350).
Applicants are also reminded that all K visa fees will continue to be payable at the embassy and not Demerara Bank, the US Embassy said in a press statement yesterday.
The Department of State, under which the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown lies, is required by law to recover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas through the collection of the MRV fee.
Periodically, independent contractors conduct a Cost of Service Study to determine direct and indirect costs to the U.S. Government of providing consular services, such as non-immigrant visa processing.  Such a study was completed in June 2009 using an activity-based costing model, which is standard for estimating the cost of government services.
The study determined that the cost of accepting, adjudicating, and issuing non-immigrant visas will be greater than $131 in Fiscal Year 2010, which began October 1, 2009.  Also, since the last fee increase in 2008, there have been new security-related costs, new IT systems have been put in place, and there is a new mandate from Congress to charge non-immigrant visa applicants $1 to support programmes to combat trafficking in persons.
Applicants who have already paid the old fee of $26,200 ($131) will need to pay the $1,800 ($9) difference at the Embassy when they come for their appointment, if the appointment is on or after June 4.