
Travelers to the US will soon be hit with another large fee... here's what to know
A provision in the recently-signed Big, Beautiful Bill Act will require thousands of individuals to pay a new 'visa integrity fee.'
It's a $250 charge for anyone entering the US on a nonimmigrant visa, which includes tourists, business travelers, and international students. The fee applies only to approved visas.
Travelers who later leave the US and can prove they didn't overstay their visa may be eligible for reimbursement, according to the law.
For years, Republicans and Trump officials have argued that taxpayers shouldn't foot the bill for immigration enforcement and visa processing.
Supporters say this new fee shifts that cost to travelers — and creates an incentive to follow the rules.
But immigration lawyers are pushing back, warning that the federal government hasn't explained when the fee will take effect or how travelers will get their money back.
They also worry the process will require burdensome paperwork and red tape.
'This fee is supposed to be reimbursable after the expiration of the visa, provided the visa holder can document full compliance,' Loren Locke, a Georgia-based immigration lawyer, told DailyMail.com.
'Many B1/B2 visitor visas are valid for a full decade. That is a long time to compile and save records, and a long time to wait to get your money back.'
Meanwhile, visa holders can likely expect costs to rise.
The law sets a minimum fee of $250 for the 2025 fiscal year, but allows the Department of Homeland Security to raise the amount — and requires it to adjust for inflation.
The increasing cost could have a terrible economic impact, according to Locke.
'Additional fees can deter legitimate travelers while doing little to address actual visa violations,' she said.
'But the new fee does send a clear message to would-be vacationers: the US government sees you as a potential threat, not as a valued guest.'
The fee comes down as international travel to America keeps slowing. And for American vacationers, that's making it pricier to move around.
President Trump signed the bill into law on July 4
Experts worry the law will have unintended impacts on airline companies that are already slashing domestic flight capacity
Leading the way in US travel boycotts is the neighbor to the north: Canada.
The long-time ally has sparred with the Trump Administration over tariffs, US threats of a takeover, and immigration policy.
Canadians, who have long been the top international travelers to the US, are instead withholding much of the $20.5 billion they typically spend traveling to the US.
Now, if the visa fee is fully launched, it will likely become even more cost prohibitive for Canadians to come into the US.
International Airlines, like Air Canada, have already cancelled dozens of US-based trips because of slumping demand.
Meanwhile, multiple US-based airliners are shutting off the valve of US domestic flights because of cost pressures at home.
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The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
LA archdiocese to deliver food and medication to parishioners homebound due to Ice raids
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The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
She fled Cuba for asylum – then was snatched from a US immigration courtroom
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Instead, the judge noted that Jenny was pursuing an asylum claim and scheduled her for another court date in August 2026 – the best possible outcome. 'She turned around and looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back, because she understood that she was free to go home,' Jerome said. But as Jenny left the courtroom and approached the elevator to leave, a crowd of government agents in masks converged on her and demanded she go with them. Just before she disappeared down a corridor with the phalanx of officers, she turned back to look at Jerome, her face stricken, silently pleading with him to do something. 'I said, 'She's legal. She's here legally. And you guys just don't care, do you? Nobody cares about this. You guys just like pulling people away like this,'' Jerome recalled telling the agents. 'And nobody said a word. They couldn't even look me in the eye,' he told the Guardian. Footage of her apprehension was taken by those advocating for her and shared with the Guardian. 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The unusual tactics are happening while Donald Trump and his deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, push for Ice to make at least 3,000 daily arrests – a tenfold increase from during Biden's last year in office. Ice agents have suddenly become regulars at immigration court, where they can easily find soft targets. At first, the officers appeared to focus arrests on a subset of migrants who had been in the US for fewer than two years, which the Trump administration argues makes them susceptible to a fast-tracked deportation scheme called expedited removal. Ice officers seem to confer with their agency's attorneys, who ask the judge to dismiss the migrants' cases, as they did with Jenny. And, if judges agree, the migrants are detained on their way out of court so that officials can reprocess them through expedited removal, which allows the federal government to repatriate people with far less due process, sometimes without even seeing another judge. 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'To see individuals who are law-abiding and who have received a follow-up court date only to be greeted by a group of large men in masks and whisked away to an unknown location in a building is jarring. It breaks my understanding and conception of the United States having a lawful due process,' said Emily Miller, who is part of a larger volunteer group in El Paso trying to protect migrants as best they can. One woman Miller saw apprehended had come to the US legally, submitted her asylum petition the day of her hearing, and was given a follow-up court date by the judge before Ice detained her. 'My physical reaction was standing in the hallway shaking. My body just physically started shaking, out of shock and out of concern,' Miller said. 'I have lived in other countries where I've been a stranger in a strange land and did not speak the language or had limited language abilities. And as a woman, to be greeted by masked men is something we are taught to fear because of violence that could happen to us.' Elsewhere in Texas, at the San Antonio immigration court earlier this month, a toddler dressed in pink and white overalls ran gleefully around the drab waiting room. Far more chairs than people lined the room's perimeter, as if more attendees had been expected. A constantly multitasking employee at the front window bowed her head in frustration as the caller she was speaking to kept asking more questions. Self-help legal pamphlets hung on the wall – a reminder that the representation rate for people in immigration proceedings has plummeted in recent years, and the vast majority of migrants are navigating the deportation process with little to no expert help. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In one of the courtrooms, a family took their seats before the judge. Their seven-year-old boy pulled his shirt over his nose, his arms inside the arm holes. The government attorney sitting with a can of Dr Pepper on her desk promptly told the judge she had a motion to introduce, even as the family filed their asylum applications. She wanted to dismiss their cases, she said, as it was no longer in the government's best interest to proceed. The judge said no. She scheduled the family for their final hearings just over a year later. And she warned them, carefully, that Ice might approach them as soon as they left her courtroom. What happened next, she said, was not in her control. Her last words to the family: 'Good luck.' 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Migrants picked up at the court in Chicago have been sent to Missouri, Florida and Texas – to detention spaces that still have capacity, but also to where judges are more likely to side with the Trump administration for speedier deportations. Many of them end up far from their loved ones, and a lag in Ice's publicly accessible online detainee locator has meant some of them have at times essentially disappeared. As word of mouth has spread among immigrant communities in Chicago about these arrests, the once bustling court has gone eerily quiet, Spiro said. That, in turn, could have its own serious consequences, as no-shows for hearings are often ordered deported. 'They don't want to leave their house because of the detentions that are happening,' Spiro said of Chicago's immigrants. 'So to go to court, and to go anywhere – they don't want to come to our office. 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ITV News
39 minutes ago
- ITV News
Trump tees off at his Turnberry resort as his five day private visit to Scotland begins
US President Donald Trump has taken to the golf course on the first full day of his private visit to Scotland. The president headed to his Trump Turnberry resort – which he bought in 2014 – after arriving in the country on Friday night. On Saturday morning he was seen on the golf course there, wearing a white cap and driving a golf buggy. Ahead of that, a large number of police and military personnel have been spotted searching the grounds at the venue in South Ayrshire. Various road closures have been put in place, with limited access for both locals and members of the media. Trump is staying at Turnberry for the start of a five-day private visit to Scotland which will see him have talks with both UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney. With no talks apparently scheduled for Saturday, the president – a well-known golf enthusiast – appears to be free to play the famous Turnberry course. However, protests have been planned, with opponents of Trump expected to gather in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen later on Saturday and the Stop Trump coalition planning what it has described as being a 'festival of resistance'. As well as visiting Trump Turnberry, Trump will head to Aberdeenshire later in his visit and is expected to open a second course at his golf resort in Balmedie. As he landed in Ayrshire on Friday, the president took questions from journalists, telling Europe to 'get your act together' on immigration, which he said was 'killing' the continent. He also praised Starmer, who he described as a 'good man', but added that the prime minister is 'slightly more liberal than I am'. Saturday will be the first real test of Police Scotland during the visit as it looks to control the demonstrations in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, as well as any which spring up near to the president's course. The force has asked for support from others around the UK to bolster officer numbers, with both organisations representing senior officers and the rank-and-file claiming there is likely to be an impact on policing across the country for the duration of the visit. Before the visit started, Swinney appealed to Scots to protest 'peacefully and within the law'.