The $250 US Visa Integrity Fee Explained: Status, Cost, and Who Pays in 2026
Key Points
- The Visa Integrity Fee is a $250 surcharge added to most US nonimmigrant visa issuances under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 2025.
- As of April 2026, the fee is on the books but has not been collected; DHS and State have not published an implementation date.
- US citizens, green-card holders, and Visa Waiver Program travelers are not affected; the fee hits tourist, student, work, and exchange visa applicants.
TL;DR
A $250 Visa Integrity Fee on US nonimmigrant visas became law in July 2025. As of April 2026, collection has not started. US citizens and ESTA-eligible travelers are exempt; inbound visitor forecasts have softened ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
What the Visa Integrity Fee Is
The Visa Integrity Fee is a flat $250 surcharge added to most US nonimmigrant visa issuances. It was created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget reconciliation package signed into law on July 4, 2025. The fee sits on top of existing visa application and I-94 fees, and it is paid only when a visa is issued, not when you apply.
The statute sets $250 as a floor for fiscal year 2025 and indexes future amounts to inflation. The Secretary of Homeland Security can also raise the fee by regulation, so the real cost is likely to climb.
How Much It Costs
For a standard B-1/B-2 tourist or business visa, the math works out like this in 2026:
- B-1/B-2 application fee (MRV): $185
- Visa Integrity Fee: $250
- I-94 fee (raised by the same law from $6 to $24): $24
- Total per traveler: $459
For a family of four, that is roughly $1,836 in government fees before anyone books a flight. H-1B and other work visas run higher because the underlying application fee is more expensive. F-1 students pay the integrity fee on top of the MRV plus the separate SEVIS I-901 charge.
The law includes a refund mechanism on paper: travelers who comply with their visa terms and depart within five days of expiration can apply for reimbursement after the visa expires. In practice, most US tourist visas are valid for ten years, the refund process has not been built, and the Congressional Budget Office assumed almost nobody would actually claim one. Treat the $250 as a sunk cost.
Status as of April 2026
The fee is law, but collection has not started. Implementation requires coordination between the State Department (which issues visas) and DHS (the collecting agency), plus a Federal Register notice or formal rulemaking before payment systems can go live. None of that has been finalized as of April 2026.
That gap matters for anyone with a visa appointment in the next few months. If your visa is issued before collection turns on, you will not pay the fee on that issuance. Once it starts, it applies to all new issuances.
Who Pays and Who Is Exempt
The fee tracks existing nonimmigrant visa categories, so the question is whether you need a visa at all to enter the US.
Travelers who pay the fee on issuance:
- Tourist and business visa holders (B-1, B-2)
- Students and exchange visitors (F, M, J)
- Temporary workers (H, L, O, P, and similar categories)
- Transit travelers using a C visa
Travelers who do not pay it:
- US citizens and lawful permanent residents
- Visa Waiver Program travelers using ESTA, which covers 40-plus countries including the UK, most of the EU, Japan, South Korea, and Australia
- Canadians entering as B-1/B-2 visitors, who do not require a visa stamp
- Diplomatic and official travelers on A and G visas
For US-based readers hosting friends or family, the practical question is which passport they hold. ESTA-eligible visitors are unaffected; everyone else faces the new charge once collection begins.
How Travelers and the US Tourism Industry Have Reacted
The reaction has been sharper than the dollar amount alone would suggest. The fee landed alongside other moves that raised the cost and friction of visiting the US: the I-94 hike, cuts to Brand USA's promotion budget from $100 million to $20 million, and longer visa wait times in several high-volume markets.
The US Travel Association projected a meaningful drop in inbound visits for 2026 after the law passed, and forecasts from Tourism Economics were revised downward through 2027. The timing is awkward. The US is co-hosting the FIFA World Cup in summer 2026, building toward the LA28 Olympics, and marking the America 250 semiquincentennial. All three depend on international visitors to hit attendance and spending targets. Industry groups have asked Congress to pause or repeal the fee on those grounds, so far without success.
What This Means for Points-and-Miles Readers
If you are planning inbound friend-and-family visits, three practical adjustments make sense.
First, check the passport. ESTA-eligible visitors do not pay the fee, and most short-trip leisure visitors from Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Australia fall into that bucket. If your guest holds a passport that requires a B-1/B-2, build the extra $250 (plus the higher I-94 charge) into the budget before they book.
Second, check existing visa validity. B-1/B-2 visas are typically valid for ten years. If your guest already has one, they are not paying the new fee on this trip; the charge applies on the next issuance after collection starts.
Third, lean on the cards you already use for travel. A premium card with an annual travel credit can absorb the fee for one traveler if it codes as a travel purchase, and the welcome bonus on a new flexible-points card often covers the cost several times over for a household making one or two inbound trips a year. None of that erases the fee, but it is the closest thing to offsetting it.
The Visa Integrity Fee is the kind of policy change that quietly shifts the math on long-haul US travel for the next several years. Date-stamping the cost in your own planning, and rechecking the implementation status before any visa appointment, is the cheapest hedge available.
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