Department of State March 29, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This rule amends the Schedule of Fees for consular services (Schedule) 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.