Fees for Visa Services

Application Fees for Nonimmigrant and Immigrant Visas increased January 1, 2008.

Coming to the U.S. Temporarily - Nonimmigrant Visa Services
Coming to the U.S. Permanently - Immigrant Services
Special Visa Services

The following lists fees for visa application and other types of processing fees collected by Department of State. Note that many immigration-related forms are submitted to the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and not to the Department of State. If the type of information or form you are seeking is not shown here, select USCIS Forms and Fees to go to the USCIS Internet site to review more.

Coming to the U.S. Temporarily - Nonimmigrant Visa Services

Important Notice: Application Processing Fees for Nonimmigrant Visas and Border Crossing Cards Increased from $100 to $131 starting January 1, 2008. Learn more.

Description of Service and Fee Amount
Nonimmigrant visa application and border crossing card processing fees (per person):
Nonimmigrant visa application processing fee, Form DS-156 (non-refundable): $131.00
Border crossing card - 10 year (age 15 and over) non-refundable: $131.00
Border crossing card - (under age 15). For Mexican citizen if parent or guardian has or is applying for a border crossing card (non-refundable): $13.00
L Visa- Fraud Prevention and Detection for visa applicant in the L blanket petition abroad only (principal applicant only): $500.00
When the nonimmigrant visa application processing fee is not required:
Applicants for A, G, C-3, NATO and diplomatic visas (defined in 22 CFR 41.26): No Fee
Applicants for J visas participating in official Department of State or USAID sponsored educational and cultural exchanges, under a G-1 or G-2 program number: No Fee
Replacement of machine-readable visa when the original visa was not properly affixed or needs to be reissued through no fault of the applicant: No Fee
Applicants exempted by international agreement as determined by Visa Services, including members and staff of an observer mission to United Nations Headquarters recognized by the UN General Assembly, and their immediate families: No Fee
Applicants travelling to provide charitable services as determined by Visa Services: No Fee
U.S. Government employees travelling on official business: No Fee
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 emergency treatment and convalescence: No Fee
Nonimmigrant visa issuance fee, including border-crossing cards.
See the Visa Reciprocity Tables to find out the visa issuance fee amount,
if applicable: Varies (Reciprocal)
When the nonimmigrant visa issuance fee is not required:
An official representative of a foreign government or an international or regional organization of which the U.S. is a member; members and staff of an observer mission to United Nations Headquarters recognized by the UN General Assembly; and applicants for diplomatic visas as defined under item 22(a); and their immediate families: No Fee
An applicant transiting to and from the United Nations Headquarters: No Fee
An applicant participating in a U.S. Government sponsored program: No Fee
An applicant travelling to provide charitable services as determined by Visa Services: No Fee
Other - When a Visa is Not Required - Visa Waiver Program
Citizens of Visa Waiver Program participating countries, and meeting requirements pay a small fee. Select USCIS fees to learn more.
Coming to the U.S. Permanently - Immigrant Services

Important Notice: Application Processing Fees for Immigrant Visas Increased from $335 to $355 starting January 1, 2008. Applicants who have paid the current $335 fee prior to January 1, 2008 will not be required to make up the difference and pay the higher fee even if their application is actually processed after January 1, 2008.

Description of Service and Fee Amount

Filing an immigrant visa petition (Collected for USCIS and subject to change)
Petition to classify status of alien relative for issuance of immigrant visa, select USCIS, Form I-130 for fees and form.
Petition to classify orphan as an immediate relative, select USCIS, Form I-600 for fees and form.
Immigrant visa application processing fee (per person), Form DS-230 : $355.00
Diversity Visa Lottery surcharge for immigrant visa application (per person applying as a result of the lottery program): $375.00
Immigrant visa security surcharge, for all IV and DV applicants: $45.00
Affidavit of Support Review (only when AOS is reviewed domestically), Form I-864 : $70.00
Note: Forms and fee amounts are listed for immigration petitions which are submitted to Department of State, either accepted at an Embassy or Consulate abroad, or within the U.S to the National Visa Center or Kentucky Consular Center. Other immigration related forms can only be approved by the Department of Homeland Security's United States Citizenship and Immigrants Services (USCIS). For other fees (relating to forms starting with an “I” select USCIS Forms and Fees for additional information.


Special Visa Services
Description of Service and Fee Amount

Special Visa Services:
Application for Determining Returning Resident Status, Form DSP-117 : $400.00
Transportation letter for Legal Permanent Residents of U.S.: $165.00
Application for Waiver of 2 year foreign residency requirement (J Waiver),
Data Sheet, Form 3035 : $215.00
Application for Waiver of immigrant visa ineligibility (collected for USCIS and subject to change): $250.00
Refugee or significant public benefit parole case processing: No Fee
U.S. Visa fingerprinting: $85.00
( NOTE: This fee chart is based on the Code of Federal Regulations - Title 22, Part 22, Sections 22.1 through 22.7.)

DV Lottery 2009 entry forms.

9:09 PM 11/23/2007
dvlottery2009.com

DV Lottery 2009 entry forms can be submitted through The US Govt's Official web site only. For this purpose the web site is operated by the DOS and paper entry forms are not accepted as it was before 4 years back. Some private companies with out the endorsement of the US Govt accept paper entries and photos from people who don't know to use computer or don't have the access to the internet. Those companies normally charge a small amount of money for their services. They normally collect the details and photos from those people through postal mail, then they scan the photograph according to the instruction and fill the official form with the applicant details and submit them online. Then they send the official confirmation to the applicant through the postal mail.

But there are some fraud companies poses as the official US Govt web site and charge a big amount for submitting the entry. Some time they enter their address as the applicant's address. If the applicant wins the lottery the winning notification will reach those people's official address. Then those people may claim money from that innocent applicant. So watch out for good companies to apply on behalf of yourself if you don't know how to apply.

Why Need a sponsor?

The new American law requests that each DV Lottery winners must have a sponsor to support them. When they receive their dv 2009 result and they start to process the winners must provide the sponsors name and the address. In the recent years only it came in to a request, in the past years they asked to proof the winners does have a sponsor person in the USA by providing a letter.

But in the last year held dv lottery 2009 instruction clearly say that a person in the USA, a citizen or a friend of the DV Lottery winner to submit a sworn affidavit of support. This is to prevent the winner from becoming a public charge.

This is because many people got the visas through these programs came to USA with out proper help suffered a lot. Their difficulties with understanding the English language, not having proper traing, not having a shelter to stay and many more made them to depend on community centers and like those places.

Yes, America is a land of opportunity, but to start and go ahead with the living sure you will need a good friend. Many winners who are shy to say back to their friends about their suffering in America.

Many Bank executives top level job holders in their own country found it very difficult to good jobs which can match their education and work experience. Many ended with elders caring jobs till they found suitable jobs. The jobs they took at the early stages were very bad for their status back in their country.

Those who came with not much work experience took whatever job came in to their way and mingled with local people and found suitable dependable jobs.

So it is necessary for you to have a sponsor to receive the visa and it is better for you too.

The necessary form for the affidavit of support is I-134. It can be downloaded from the State Department web site.

Second Letter.

The dv 2009 winners who are selected by the KCC computer as winners were sent with the winning notification and further instruction and details of the related dv visa fees inside the of the dv 2009 results packet by regular postal mail.

There are 50,000 immigrant visas available according to the diversity visa lottery program for the fiscal year 2009.

Although nearly 99,600 people were selected and notified as winners from the submitted 9.1 million EDV entries, which were submitted electronically in the 60 days EDV application period last year 2008.

Now the KCC received their filled application forms who think they are eligible to apply for it. From these KCC will select those and will send second letter notification for the interview, 4-6 weeks prior to the interview date. It will be done according to the case number. The lower numbers will be notified first in order while the higher numbers will be called for interview in the latter coming months.

You can check the visa bulletin each month to find out which number is coming as case numbers in the next coming month according to the region. This way you can find out when your case number is going to be called for the interview. The interviews and changing of status for those who are staying in the USA will start on 1st of October 2008 and will finish on 30th September 2009 midnight. There after the winning of the dv 2009 will become as a useless one and visas will not be available for the program and changing of status under this program will also be closed.

DV 2009 - Important things you have to follow.

You can enter this programe only through internet via the one and only website, which is run by the USA Govt and will accept entries in the given 60 days period.
No paper postal entry can be submitted.
You must be from an eligible country.
You must fullfil the education and/or Required Work experience.
You must be more than 18 years old.
With the entry You must submit a recent photograph of yourself as required.
If you are married you must include your spouse and your natural and legally adopted children of under 21 years and who are also unmarried.
Eligible spouse too can submit an entry as primary applicant, thus a family can submit two entries.
Visit here everyday to find when the US Govt web site is going to accept the entries.

DV 2009, Participating in this lottery is totally Free. But the selected winners will have to pay for the Diversity processing fee, visa fee and related fees and have to buy their Air Tickets. The US congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State, USA and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). The Act makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas each year to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The instructions for the DV 2009 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program are also available in PDF Format.

The annual DV program, the applications which are accepted in the year 2007 are for the DV Lottery 2009, makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the
simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer - generated random lottery drawing. The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.

Source: Dept of State, USA

DV 2009 New changes

There are some changes and requirements are done to the DV 2009 Diversity visa registration in the application procedures. As usual in the recent years, all the DV-2009 lottery entries must be submitted electronically during the registration period.

Paper entries are not accepted.

New questions for the DV 2009 are as follows.
01.Country where you live today?
02.What is the highest level of education you have achieved, as of today? You must select one from the available ten options for your higher education you have achieved.
They are
01. Primary school only,
02. High school no degree,
03. High school degree,
04. Vocational school,
05. Some university courses,
06. University degree,
07. Some graduate level courses,
08. Master degree,
09. Some doctorate level courses,
10. Doctorate degree.

03. In the What is your marital status?, the teram Separated is replaced by Legally separated. As you are legally separated spouse would not be eligible to immigrate as your derivative.

DV 2009, Countries which are not eligible.

Natives of the following countries are not allowed to participate in the DV 2009 lottery.

They are Brazil, Canada, China (Mainland-Born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Korea, UK (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

It is because these countries have sent more than 50,000 legal immigrants within the last 5 years period to The USA. Although they can claim nativity of their spouse eligibility country if they married to a person who's country is eligible. Please read the Stare dept instructions for further clarification.