Department of State Adjusts Schedule of Fees for Consular Services
The Interim Final Rule issued on March 29, 2012 makes changes to the Schedule of Fees for consular services of the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs. The Department sets and collects its fees based on the concept of full cost recovery. The Department completed its most recent review of current consular fees and will implement several changes to the Schedule of Fees based on the new fees calculated by the Cost of Service Model (CoSM). Certain ``no fee'' consular services are included in the Schedule of Fees so that members of the public will be aware of significant consular services provided by the Department at no charge to the recipient of the service.
This rule amends the Schedule of Fees for consular services for nonimmigrant visa application processing fees, border crossing card application processing fees, and immigrant visa application processing fees. The rule increases from $140 to $160 the fee charged for the processing of an application for most non-petition-based nonimmigrant visas (Machine-Readable Visas or MRVs) and Border Crossing Cards (BCCs) for Mexican citizens age 15 and over. The rule also provides amended application processing fees for certain categories of petition-based nonimmigrant visas and treaty trader and investor visas (all of which are also MRVs), as well as amended tiered application processing fees for immigrant visas. Finally, the rule increases from $14 to $15 the BCC fee charged to Mexican citizen minors who apply in Mexico, and whose parent or guardian already has a BCC or is applying for one, based on a Congressionally mandated surcharge that took effect since the last adjustment to the Schedule of Fees. The Department of State is adjusting the fees to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet the costs of providing consular services in light of the recent fee review's findings that the U.S. government is not fully covering its costs for the processing of these visas under the current fee structure.
For additional information or further questions regarding the amended fees, please contact Ronce Almond at (202) 457-7790.