From VOA:
“Significant Nonimmigrant Visa
Fee Increase Expected by September”
The Biden administration has
proposed raising the fees on almost all nonimmigrant visas. While U.S.
officials say the move is needed to better align visa prices with what it costs
to provide them, critics worry that if the administration does not address visa
wait times, the cost increase could mean even fewer travelers and students
coming to the United States. According to a Federal Register notice, the State Department
expects the new prices to go into effect by September, and it is accepting
comments on the proposed increases until February 28. “All of the fee increases
are happening at a time when tourism and travel to the United States is already
at an all-time low, and the State Department is imposing waits of six months to
a year in many places for a tourist- or business-travel visa,” David Bier, an
immigration policy expert at the Cato Institute, told VOA.
State Department figures show the
visas with the highest numbers of applications are tourism, business, and
study. A nonimmigrant visa allows the holder to travel as a tourist or live,
work or study temporarily in the U.S. under certain conditions. Visa
applications for tourism, B1 and B2, and student visas, F, M, J, will increase
from $160 to $245, a 54% increase. While employment-based visas, H, L, O, P, Q
and R, are going from $190 to $310, a 63% increase. “The most important thing is whether visas
are issued promptly. If the administration increases costs, but there’s not a
vast improvement in service from the State Department, then the result will be
far fewer travelers,” Bier added. U.S. airport traffic has fallen in
recent years, counting both domestic and international travelers. According to
the Transportation Security Administration, it screened a total of 1.1 million
people on January 26. On the same date in 2019, before the coronavirus
pandemic, that number was more than 2 million.
Promises Addressing
America’s immigration system was one of President Joe Biden’s key campaign
promises. On his first day in office, he unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act of
2021, sweeping immigration reform legislation that included an eight-year path
to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the
U.S., a plan to clear employment-based visa backlogs, and a plan to prevent
dependents of employment-based visa holders from “aging out” of the system,
among other changes. But the legislation stalled in Congress and is
largely viewed as all but dead. “Immigrants have done so much for
America during the pandemic — as they have throughout our history. The country
supports immigration reform. Congress should act,” Biden said. Immigration
experts say that while Biden reversed many of his predecessor's policies often
described as anti-immigration, a Trump administration executive order that
limited legal immigration and the issuance of temporary work visas contributed
to longer wait times for nonimmigrant visas.
Also, the State Department
temporarily suspended routine visa services at all U.S. embassies and
consulates in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions. They are reopening under a
phased resumption of visa services, but about a fourth are partly or fully
closed, according to the Cato Institute. U.S. consulates around the world are a
major component of the immigration system, processing visas "that
authorize travel to the United States, but many consulates remain closed, and
the open ones are reporting record wait times — [more than one year] in dozens
of locations,” Bier wrote in a recent analysis. A State Department official
told VOA that U.S. embassies and consulates have online information on
operating status and which services are currently offered. According to Bier,
in January most consulates reported waits of 202 days for a visa appointment
for business travelers and tourists, up from 95 days in April 2021. For
students and exchange visitors, the wait was about 38 days, up from 25 days
about a year ago, and 62 days for everyone else, including skilled temporary
workers, up from 40 days in April 2021.
Effect on students, workers A
State spokesperson explained that the department’s consular operations are
largely funded by fees for services and the proposed fee increase is to ensure
the agency is fully recovering the costs of providing these services. “Visa
fees charged by the Department are generally based on the cost of providing
visa services and are determined after conducting a study of the cost of such
service,” the spokesperson told VOA by email. “The assessment of the actual
cost of service in combination with demand projections over many years
determined the fees published in the proposed fee schedule.” Increased
fees need to translate into better service, especially shorter wait times,
which is particularly important for students, said Jill Welch, senior policy
adviser to the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. “We're
still evaluating the potential impact of the proposed rule on international
student flows to the United States. … It's important for [the State Department]
to have adequate resources to process visa applications, particularly for those
students and scholars who are on tight timelines for obtaining their visas in
order to arrive on time for the academic term,” Welch said. International
students at U.S. colleges and universities contributed nearly $41 billion to
the U.S. economy and supported 458,290 jobs in the 2018-19 academic year,
according to a study by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In the
2020-21 academic year, international students contributed $28.4 billion to the
U.S. economy, a decline of nearly 27%, or $10.3 billion, largely because of the
pandemic.
But not everyone believes higher
visa costs will have a big impact. Marcelo Barros, an international student
career expert in Washington, told VOA that although the fee increase was
“unfortunate,” it wouldn't stop people from coming to the U.S. “This is not
going to have any meaningful impact on [student] enrollment or on
[employment-based visas]. This will not have any meaningful impact on the
desire of companies to hire talent outside the U.S.,” he said, adding that if
travelers, students or high-skill workers want to come to the United States,
they will pay the new fee.
^ The US Visa, like everything
else, is going to get more expensive. I don’t know how that will affect Tourism
and Business Visits to the US – which are already affected by Covid. ^
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