US Visa Application Fees

During application process, almost applicants must pay amount of fee. How much fee that you have to pay for an American visa depends on the type of visa that you want to get and also the country you are from. You must pay fees for US nonimmigrant visas, US immigrant visas, as well as for the US diversity visa. These are application fees, while other costs include reciprocity fees. Reciprocity fees are costs that other countries have to pay depending on the relationship they have with the US, and vice versa when someone applies for visas.

The application fee for the most common nonimmigrant visa types is US$160. This includes tourist, business, student, and exchange visas. Most petition-based visas, such as work and religious visas, are US$190. K visas cost US$265 and the fee amount for E visas is US$205

• Applicants for A, G, C-2, C-3, NATO, and diplomatic visas (as defined in 22 CFR 41.26);
• Applicants holding J visas and who are participating in certain official U.S. Government-sponsored educational and cultural exchanges;
• Replacement of a machine-readable visa within one year of visa issuance, when the original visa was not properly affixed or the visa needs to be reissued through no fault of the applicant;
• Applicants exempted by international agreement, including members and staff of an observer mission to United Nations Headquarters recognized by the UN General Assembly, and their immediate families;
• Applicants traveling to provide certain charitable services;
• U.S. Government employees traveling on official business; and,
• A parent, sibling, spouse or child of a U.S. Government employee killed in the line of duty who is traveling to attend the employee’s funeral and/or burial; or a parent, sibling, spouse, son or daughter of a U.S. Government employee critically injured in the line of duty for visitation during urgent treatment and convalescence.

The US immigrant visas are those that allow a person to stay permanently in the US where they can live and work. The fees for the immigrant visas are for petitions as well as processing fees.

The fees for the petitions are as follows:

• Form I-130, Immigrant Petition for Relative costs 535.00 USD
• Form I-600 or Form I-800, Orphan Immediate Relative Petition costs 775.00 USD

As for processing fees, they depend on the type of visa which you are applying for, and are as follows:

• Immediate Relative or Family Preference Immigration Applications cost 325.00 USD in addition to the petition
• Employment-Based Immigration Applications cost 345.00 USD in addition to the petition
• Other immigration applications (such as self-petitioning) cost 205.00 USD
• K visa for a fiancé or spouse of a US citizen costs 265.00 USD
• Certain Afghan or Iraqi special immigrant applications have no fee

Another common fee for most immigrant visas is the Affidavit of Support, which costs 120.00 USD. The fee is paid from US citizen sponsors who can guarantee that they will support the applicant financially until they settle down and can work within the US.

• L visa fraud prevention and detection fee – for visa applicant included in L blanket petition  (principal applicant only): $500.00
• The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-113) increases fees for certain H-1B and L-1 petitioners.  Consular sections collect this fee for blanket L-1 visa applications (principal applicant only) filed by petitioners who employ 50 or more individuals in the United States if more than 50 percent of those individuals are in H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant status: $4,500.00