There is no way you will want to travel to the US and you won’t be paying your US visa fees, it’s not a free journey. So it is expected that you would not only be paying your US visa fees but also paying for every other necessity that comes as a result of your travel.
A US Visa is a document that allows any foreign person entrance into the United States. And anyone who seeks entrance must first obtain a US Visa which is placed on the traveler’s passport.
A passport is a document used for traveling that is issued by the travelers country of citizenship.
What Types of Visas Are There?
There are various types of visa that one can obtain and it is determined by the US immigration law, and also show the purpose of your travel.
There are two main categories of US Visa:
Nonimmigrant visas
This is a type of visa that is used by tourists, business people, and students who want to stay for a particular duration of time in the United States to fulfill a specific purpose.
Immigrant visas
This is a type of visa that is for people who want to reside in the United States permanently.
US Nonimmigrant Visa Fees
The various type of Nonimmigrant Visa has their various US visa fees attached to them. To have a better understanding of the various fees based on the types of Nonimmigrant Visa, they can be divided into non-petition-based visas and petition-based visas.
A non-petition-based visa is a type of visa that requires someone or an employer that resides in the United States to make a petition for the person that wishes to apply for a US Visa.
The applicant must simply submit the DS-160 Form, follow the steps of the payment of the US visa fees, schedule the interview, submit all required supporting documents, and attend their interview.
Petition based visa is a type of visa that requires someone or an employer that resides in the United States to make a petition for the person that wishes to apply for a US Visa for a temporary visit and work.
for the applicant to be able to submit th3 DS-160, the Employer has to submit a petition to the US citizenship and immigration services USCIS, the department of state, or the US Homeland department, the petitioner must also pay a fee for the petition, which can vary based on the Visa
Otherside the petition and non-petition based non-immigrant visas, there are also other categories and fees that must be paid such as:
Border Crossing Card for Mexican Citizens, the application fee to pay for any applicant over 15 years old is 160.00 USD, while for those who are under the age of 15 years old, it is 16.00 USD.
Petitioners for the L visas, there is a fee of 500.00 USD for any fraud detection and prevention petitioners for H visas, there is a fee of about b4,500.00 USD for petitioning to the US institutions to take any foreign temporary worker to the US
What are fees not important for US nonimmigrant visas?
There are cases where you do not have to pay a fee and that is in these situations: When you want to apply for A, G, C-2, C-3, NATO, and diplomatic visas.
For any J visa applicant that is sponsored by the US government.
To replace a machine-readable visa when the original visa was not well stamped and it was not the applicant’s fault.
For applicants who are part of international agreements such as members of staff of the UN Headquarters and their families.
For applicants traveling for charity purposes.
For any US government employees who travel for official business. For parents, siblings, spouses, and children of a US government employee who was killed in the line of duty, and the family is traveling to attend the funeral or burial.
US Nonimmigrant Visa Reciprocity Fees Reciprocity fees affect the prices of Nonimmigrant Visa to the US and these US visa fees are given for issuing visas and for border crossing cards.
But the immigrant visa didn’t make use of the reciprocity fees, it is only the Nonimmigrant Visa that does The reciprocity fees are given based on the country you are in and the one you are applying from.
The US visa fees should be paid before you are given your passport from the US embassy.
There are cases where the applicant doesn’t need to pay the reciprocity fees and that can only occur when the applicant is:
- Part of international agreements like the members of staff of the UN Headquarters or the UN General Assembly, and their families. Transiting to the UN Headquarters.
- Part of the US government-sponsored program and their spouse or children.
- Traveling for charity purposes.
Immigrant Visa Fees
The US immigrant visa is for those who wish to stay in the US permanently where they can work and leave. The US visa fees that the applicant for the immigrant visa pays for the petition is also known as the processing fee.
The petition fees 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
The processing fee depends on the type of visa you which to acquire and is 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 visa for a fiancé or spouse of a US citizen costs 265.00 USD.
- Some Afghan or Iraqi special immigrant applications have no fee
- Another fee for some immigrant visas is the Affidavit of Support, which costs 120.00 USD. This fee is paid by a US citizen sponsor to show that they will be able to support the applicant financial until they are able to settle down and can work within the US
Conclusion
You can see that paying your US visa fees is very Important in your application process and you can’t go anywhere without it, we have also outlined the US visa fees required for various visa types. We hope it is of help to you and Goodluck.
