Visa Integrity Fee Coming to the US
 

Is anyone concerned about the upcoming visa integrity fee for travelers to the US? Does it apply to people with an ESTA? The price for it is extremely steep so I would be surprised if it does not hurt a lot of US travel.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/travelers-to-the-us-must-pay-a-new-250-visa-integrity-fee-what-to-know/6340352/

On its face it appears it does not apply to people entering under ESTA since the integrity fee only applies to travelers who require a visa.

The fee is "refundable" after leaving the country timely in accordance with the terms of the visa. Good luck getting the fee refunded from an agency that didn't collect it in the first place.

This big beautiful fee is accompanied by a quadrupling of the fee for the I94 from $6 to $24.

The visa fee is expected bring in close to $29.4b over the next 9 years to help with deficit reduction of the current $36,000T. That is about .0008% of the current debt. But I guess we gotta start somewhere, right? Right....?

from The Natonal Post
 

A similar article appeared in The National Post : https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...-states-travel
The name seems to suggest its a penalty for thos who do not comply with their visa requrirements. I cannot imagine it having any impact on Canadian citizens - since the US does not have a visa requirement (yet?) for Canadian nationals.

Visa Integrity Fee when is it being introduced??
 

I have an ESTA so SHOULD be OK. I have a friend who has a 10 year visa (went to Cuba). Full UK citizen. She is going to the US early Sept. She is really worried about this Visa and how its going to be implemented.

I said I would ask you knowledge group of people.

Could anyone advise.

there isn't a firm start date for it yet.

EDIT: if she is going in early September, has she not already applied for a visa? if she already has a visa i don't think it can apply retrospectively as EvilDoctorK notes

it is a fee associated with visa applications, so by definition doesn't apply to ESTAs which is not a visa. The ESTA fee is going up tho, to $40 - no specific start date.

Assuming your friend already has a 10yr visa that will still be valid for the trip this year then I don't think it's relevant .. it's supposed to only apply for new visas .. but it all seems a bit vague and give the current administration's somewhat chaotic approach to policy making who knows !

They already have a 10 year visa and 2 years in.

Not really sure how this latest American folly is on topic for the BA forum, to be totally frank. However, one thing I know for sure is that no one in the Airline community, at least in Europe, had prior notification of this “integrity fee”.

There’s also no detail whatsoever from the US authorities about how (and if) airlines ought to be checking if an “integrity fee” has been paid and by whom. TIMATIC isn’t, to the best of my knowledge, updated and neither is Amadeus.

Another reason to avoid travelling to the U.S. recently, it's an absolute .... show (pardon my French). In theory it will be reimbursable upon leaving but nobody yet knows if it's on-demand or automatic, but it's likely they will try and dispute as much as possible (like BA lol) to make as much money as possible. On your friend's particular case, we also don't know if it's applicable. This admin is capable of doing something retro-active. More to be divulged I guess.

In all probability irrelevant then to them for the next 8 years then .. should only arise when they are applying for a new visa should they wish to ( and by then who knows what the rules might be !)

Thanks all, I put in the BA forum because both of us are flying with BA!

From what I've read, the $250 is refundable at the expiry of the visa, provided no breaches (there is a small amount of overstay latitude). I expect the US administration is rather hoping a 10-year visa holder, say of a B1/B2 visa, will have forgotten all about paying the amount in the first place and will never bother to reclaim.

If entering on a B1, the likelihood is also that the $250 will have to be funded by the employer. The chance of the employee being in the same job after that length of time, and then being bothered to claim the reimbursement on behalf of their employer, makes it even more likely that most of those fees will be forfeited having been lost in the midst of time.

On reflection, the fee ends up being $25 per year for a 10-year visa, and in that perspective doesnt seem so onerous. On the other hand, I suspect many (most?) visitors are going to visit only 1-time, and maybe with family, adding quite a big bill to that one-time trip.

it's $250 on top of the existing visa application fee tho, so it isn't $25 per year in total - it is $25 per year plus the existing fee of $18 per year ($180 visa fee for a B1). you are more than doubling the cost.