Embassy of the United States Seoul Korea

U.S Nonimmigrant Visa Application Fee Increased

December 14, 2007

Effective January 1, 2008, the U.S. Department of State raised the worldwide nonimmigrant visa application fee.  This adjustment will bring the fee into line with the actual costs of administering nonimmigrant visa services.

The State Department has congressional authorization to fund the Department’s Border Security Program with user fees.  These fees are adjusted periodically to reflect the actual cost of the program.  New security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation have added to the cost of visa processing.  The Department is facing a critical revenue shortfall because the current fee does not recover the full cost of service.  The Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fee was introduced in 1994 and is the program’s primary source of revenue.