By: Patricia Gannon, Esq. and Marcela Bermudez, Esq.
As summer travel winds down, just a reminder that the $250 Visa Integrity Fee, which will start in October, was introduced under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a legislative package passed as part of the 2025 appropriations process. The purpose of this fee is to fund efforts to improve oversight and enforcement. The law levies the new visa integrity fee on any foreign national issued a non-immigrant visa at the time of such issuance. This would apply to the issuance of any non-immigrant visa, including, for example, F-1 and F-2 visas, J-1 and J-2 visas, H-1B and H-4 visas, etc. The visa integrity fee will be paid in addition to the “machine-readable visa” (MRV) visa application fee and any reciprocity fees that non-immigrant visa applicants must already pay.
Other fees that are increasing include:
- Form I-94 (used to track arrivals and departures): $6 → $24
- ESTA: $4 → $13
- Parole Applications: $1,000 (up from $630)
- Asylum Applicants: New $100 annual surcharge for pending cases