December 18, 2007	Tuesday	Zilhaj 7, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The United States has increased its visa fee by over 30 per cent to foot the bill for enhanced security costs, a statement issued by the US embassy said on Monday.

The application fee for a US non-immigrant visa has been raised from the existing $100 to $131. The increase will be effective from January 1, next year, the statement said.

However, 27 countries mostly the European states will remain exempt from the increase.

The fee escalation was necessitated as the US decided to take 10 fingerprints of each applicant at the airports and other entry ports last month.

“We are now collecting 10 fingerprints of each applicant, and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allows us to retain the existing fee,” the statement said. The application fee has been raised twice since 9/11.

The increase is adopted partly because of increased processing costs and security enhancements implemented since 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the statement said.

“Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the existing fee is lower than the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas,” it said.

The US embassy emphasized that a cost of service study had revealed as back as 2004 that $100 fee was much lower than the actual cost of processing immigrant visas. The State Department, it said, was bearing the additional cost.

The embassy further clarified that all those applicants, who had filed applications before January 1, 2008, but are scheduled for interviews after January 31, would have to pay the additional amount as well.