US visa fees goes up

It will cost more to give up American citizenship

EFFECTIVE Friday, fees for certain consular services, including visa applications and the renunciation of US citizenship, are being changed to reflect actual processing costs to US embassies and consulates worldwide.

The pending changes were announced in a release to the media by the US Embassy in Kingston.

Fees for family-based and fiancé(e) immigrant visas will increase, while fees for employment-related immigrant visas will decrease. Fees for the Visitors’ Visa (B1/B2) have not changed.

Fees for family-based immigrant visas, commonly known as “filings”, will increase from US$230 to US$325. These include immigrant visa petitions filed by family members in the US, such as spouses, parents, adult children, and siblings. Fiancé(e) visas, known as “K” visas, will increase from US$240 to US$265. Employment-based immigrant visa petitions, however, will decrease from the current US$405 to US$345.

Additionally, the fee to renounce one’s US citizenship will increase from US$450 to US$2,350.

“The new fee for renouncing US citizenship is a five-fold increase, and reflects the real, unsubsidised cost of providing this service. A renunciation is a serious decision, and consular staff must be certain that the person renouncing fully understands the consequences. Consular officers spend a substantial amount of time on each renunciation case. Further, before a renunciation is complete, the case must go to the State Department in Washington DC for review and a final decision. The former fee of US$450 represented less than a quarter of the department’s processing costs. The new fee now reflects the service’s full costs,” said the embassy.

Fees have also decreased for out-of-office consular services, such as depositions, from US$231 an hour to US$135, an hour.

Embassy Kingston processes approximately 100,000 non-immigrant visa applications and 12,000 immigrant visa applications a year. Each year, the entire Department of State processes more than 11 million non-immigrant visas and 600,000 immigrant visa applications.