Trump Imposes $250 'Visa Integrity Fee' on All US Visa Applicants
Foreigners seeking a US visa will soon be required to pay a new, non-refundable $250 "Visa Integrity Fee", as part of a law presented as part of Donald Trump's re-introduced immigration policy agenda. Enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the legislation applies to all nonimmigrant visa categories—tourists, students, and business travellers alike.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says the fee will cut down visa overstays and unauthorised work, but implementation is unclear. Refund prospects are also uncertain, and agency coordination continues.
For now, the base fee is $250, but DHS has the authority to raise it annually, adjusting it for inflation. The law makes this fee mandatory, with no waivers allowed. It adds to existing visa and immigration processing charges, rather than replacing them.
Travellers from all over the world, regardless of purpose or duration of stay, will need to factor this into their expenses.
Although the legislation contains a reimbursement provision, the reimbursement procedure is not made explicit. A visitor should not stay beyond five days and should take precautions against any unauthorized work during the visit. Even so, any refund would be entertained only when the visa has expired. This implies that certain applicants may have to wait years to even be considered, if at all.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that only a "small number" of people would most likely qualify for refunds. It also warned that the Department of State would take years to establish an effective mechanism for repayments.
The Department of Homeland Security has assured that the process of issuing the visa is with the State Department, and not with DHS. This has created doubts about how the fee would be collected. DHS informed CNBC that coordination was happening between agencies, but no start date has been officially announced.
The US Travel Association has raised "sizable hurdles and unanswered questions", pointing towards the uncertainties on collection, enforcement, and refunds.
For the moment, millions of visa applicants—students and professionals alike—will have to prepare for increased fees, with limited certainty about when or whether the system will run. While the charge can generate additional revenue and dissuade visa exploitation, it could also lead to confusion, scare away legitimate visitors, and make an already cumbersome visa process more complicated.
In effect, Trump's "Visa Integrity Fee" could remake how the globe visits the US—albeit at what expense is uncertain.
