The United States is raising its non-immigrant visa fee starting next year, the State Department said on Thursday.
The State Department said in a statement that from Jan. 1, 2008,foreign tourists, students and businessmen have to pay 130 U.S. dollars as visa application fee, about 30 percent higher than the current level.
The rise is adopted partly due to increased processing costs and security enhancements implemented since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the United States, the statement said.
"Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the 100 dollars... fee is lower than the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas," it said.
The rise was announced as the country started to enforce 10 fingerprints collection at the airports and other entry ports in November.
"We are now collecting 10 fingerprints from each applicant, and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allows us to do this," the statement said.
The new price level is not applicable to prospective immigrants to the United States nor to citizens of the 27 mainly European countries that are part of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, unless they are seeking permission to enter the United States for longer than 90 days.
Source: Xinhua
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