The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
22 December 2007
Addis Ababa — The United States Embassy in Addis Ababa Announces an Increase in the Application Fee Charged for Non-immigrant visas. The new fee increase, which will go into effect January 1, 2008, is being implemented at all U.S. embassies worldwide.
The application fee for a U.S. non-immigrant visa will increase from $100 USD to $131 USD. "This increase allows the U.S. Department of State to more fully recover the costs of processing non-immigrant visas and of implementing new security enhancements to the visa application process," the embassy said.
Applicants who pay the prior USD 100 application fee before January 1, 2008 will not need to pay any additional fee if they appear for a visa interview on or before January 31, 2008. Applicants who pay the USD 100 application fee before January 1, 2008 but appear for visa interviews after January 31, 2008 will be required to pay an additional USD 31 surcharge before they can be interviewed.
Applicants may pay the additional USD 31 surcharge either at the U.S. Embassy Consular Section or at the Bank of Abyssinia. (Ourael, Arada or Raguel branch). Applicants who pay the surcharge should bring receipts for both the initial application fee and for the surcharge when they arrive for their interview at the U.S. Embassy.
According to the embassy, the increase in the non-immigrant visa application fee reflects the U.S. Department of State's obligation by law to recover the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas through the collection of the fee. Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the actual cost of processing a non immigrant visa is higher than the current USD 100 fee.
The Department of State has been absorbing the additional cost of visa processing for several years. An integral part of this fee increase reflects the costs associated with collecting 10 fingerprints from each applicant, and additional costs related to processing the fingerprints. The non-immigrant visa application fee was last increased in 2002, it said.
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