
Visa integrity fee: The new $250 charge visitors to US must pay under Trump scheme
The fee, $250 (£186) for the 2025 fiscal year, applies to all visitors travelling to the US on a non-immigrant visa (but not those who travel with a visa waiver).
It's due to affect millions of tourists, international students and workers after the Trump administration's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' was signed into law on 4 July 2025.
The fee will be charged on top of existing visa application costs – including a newly increased 'Form 1-94 fee', now $24 (£18).
According to section 10007 of the Act: 'In addition to any other fee authorized by law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall require the payment of a fee, equal to the amount specified in this subsection, by any alien issued a nonimmigrant visa at the time of such issuance.'
It also states that the $250 charge cannot be waived or reduced.
However, travellers on a non-immigrant visa may be able to have the fee reimbursed if they comply with all visa conditions, including not accepting unauthorised employment, while in the US.
Those who depart the US no later than five days after their visa expires or gain 'lawful permanent resident' status will also be eligible for a reimbursement.
The charge is not yet set up to be collected but will be effective during the US fiscal year, which runs from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.
The law doesn't specify exactly when or how the fee will be paid or reimbursements will be issued.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CBNC: 'The visa integrity fee requires cross-agency coordination before implementation.'
It added: 'President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill provides the necessary policies and resources to restore integrity in our nation's immigration system.'
The visa integrity fee can be changed by the Secretary of Homeland Security and will be adjusted annually, per inflation.
A ' Report of the Visa Office' found that almost 11 million nonimmigrant visas were issued in 2024 alone.
Many UK travellers, as well as those from more than 40 countries such as Australia, Japan and Singapore, do not need visas to enter the US for less than 90 days under the Visa Waiver Programme. These tourists will be exempt from the charge. Most visit on an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta), which is also due to increase in price – almost doubling from the current $21 (£16) fee to $40 (£30).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
9 minutes ago
- Reuters
Euro set for first monthly decline this year, focus switches to Fed
SINGAPORE, July 30 (Reuters) - The euro steadied near its lowest in a month on Wednesday, nursing steep losses this week as investors counted the cost of the U.S.-EU trade pact, while the dollar wobbled ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The Japanese yen firmed against the dollar after a powerful earthquake struck off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and generated a tsunami, prompting evacuation warnings in the area and across most of Japan's east coast. Currency markets were mostly steady as investors were hesitant to place bets before crucial economic reports and central bank meetings in Canada, Japan and the United States. U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce, following two days of what both sides described as constructive talks in Stockholm. No major breakthroughs were announced and U.S. officials said it was up to President Donald Trump to decide whether to extend a truce that expires on August 12. The Sino-U.S. talks come after a framework deal between the U.S. and EU was announced on Sunday. The accord has evoked a mix of relief and concern from Europe, as the agreement was lopsided and skewed towards the United States. Investors have been keeping an eye on the trade pacts as countries scramble to get deals over the line before the August 1 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump. "Markets seem to be increasingly interpreting trade agreements as symbolic and tactical rather than structural resolution," said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo in Singapore. "With terms often vague and enforcement mechanisms weak, investors are assigning lower market beta to these negotiations unless backed by concrete detail." The euro was 0.19% higher at $1.1566 after dropping for the first two days of the week and hitting a one-month low of $1.15185 on Tuesday. The euro is up 11.7% since the start of the year but on course for its first monthly drop this year. The single currency has benefited this year from the dollar losing its lustre due to Trump's erratic trade policies, prompting investors to look for alternatives. Sterling was at $1.3358 and the Australian dollar last bought $0.6517. The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.178 per U.S. dollar. That left the dollar index , which measures the U.S. currency against six others, at 98.815, hovering near a one-month high. The index is set to record its first month of gains this year. Investor focus will now switch to central bank meetings, with the Fed widely expected to stand pat on rates later on Wednesday, making comments from Chair Jerome Powell crucial to gauge the policy path. The meeting comes in the wake of Trump's constant demands for rate cuts, which have coincided with an unrelenting campaign of attacks on Powell by the president and administration officials. There is speculation that Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman could issue dissents if the Fed on Wednesday holds the policy rate steady for the fifth time since December. Both were appointed by Trump as was Powell. "While dissenting isn't uncommon, the dissents at this week's meeting may get more focus because Trump has made it crystal clear that he thinks the FOMC should be lowering interest rates," said Kristina Clifton, a senior economist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "Dissents at this meeting may be judged as political and put a dent in perceptions of the FOMC's independence." The BOJ is also expected to stand pat and the spotlight will be on comments from Governor Kazuo Ueda as investors hope the recent trade deal between Japan and the U.S. paves the way for the central bank to raise interest rates again this year. The yen firmed 0.3% to 147.94 per dollar and was last at 148.06 after news broke about the Pacific earthquake and tsunami, with investors on alert for any damage to key infrastructure in Japan. Christopher Wong, currency strategist at OCBC, said the yen strength was in reaction to earthquake-related headlines and likely exacerbated by thin market liquidity. "The Nightmare of 2011 Tohoku earthquake lingers," he said, referring to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March 2011. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin was 0.4% higher at $117,944.64, while ether rose 1% to $3,807.34.


Reuters
39 minutes ago
- Reuters
Gold inches higher on lower Treasury yields; Fed policy decision awaited
July 30 (Reuters) - Gold prices edged up on Wednesday, supported by lower Treasury yields and a slight pullback in the dollar, while investors await the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy statement later in the day for guidance on future monetary policy path. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $3,329.27 per ounce as of 0236 GMT. U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $3,326.90. "There could be a chance that the Fed may start to tilt towards the dovish side of the pendulum, and that is being portrayed on the Treasury yields," OANDA senior market analyst Kelvin Wong said, adding that the dollar strength was also tempered at this juncture. The U.S. dollar index (.DXY), opens new tab retreated from a more than one-month high, while benchmark 10-year Treasury yields hovered near a one-month low on Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to keep rates steady, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's constant call to lower them. Markets continue to price in a potential rate cut in September. Gold tends to do well in a low-interest-rate environment. If gold prices reach above $3,350 by the end of this week, given the upcoming release of U.S. inflation data and employment report, it could potentially swing momentum back towards a boost in prices, at least for the short term, Wong said. On Tuesday, U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to seek an extension of their 90-day tariff truce that expires on August 12, following two days of talks in Stockholm, with U.S. officials saying that it was up to Trump to decide. The International Monetary Fund slightly raised its global growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 on Tuesday, citing stronger-than-expected buys ahead of a jump in U.S. tariffs on August 1 and a drop in the effective U.S. tariff rate to 17.3% from 24.4%. Spot silver fell 0.1% to $38.14 per ounce, platinum lost 0.6% at $1,386.31 and palladium rose 0.4% to $1,262.99.


Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Lesotho: In the country that Trump claims 'nobody has ever heard of', his name evokes fear and panic
A blanket of thick fog covers Lesotho's capital, Maseru. Winter in the southern African country feels colder than ever. Thousands of garment workers have lost their jobs as the threat of US tariffs brings the textile industry to the edge. Hundreds of thousands have been cut off from critical healthcare after the USAID withdrawal. Unemployed women stand outside the locked gates of factories asking for work. HIV-positive mothers travel long distances to clinics for a limited supply of life-saving medicine, holding their babies wrapped in blankets. Lives and livelihoods in Lesotho have been devastated by US President Donald Trump - a country he has said "nobody has ever heard of". The Basotho have certainly heard of President Trump. His name now evokes fear, worry and panic among many in the small nation his policies have targeted. "People are scared of him, too much. When he says he will do something then he must do it," says Maplape Makhele, a 32-year-old garment worker and mother of two. "I have seen what he has done in South Africa and China. He doesn't want to work with other countries." We spoke to Mpalape at her work station in the Afri-Expo Textiles factory while she sewed denim. This work was steady while Lesotho held the title of the "denim capital of Africa". Today, she is terrified of losing her job as the breadwinner of her family. More than 200 of her colleagues have already been laid off from the factory. "We are close to only half operational," says her boss Teboho Kobeli, the managing director of Afri-Expo Textiles Factories. He has cut around 500 jobs across three factories. "We had been doing some US orders but now we have had to re-adjust ourselves," he says. "There are a lot of job losses and I can see more jobs lost as of next month." Lesotho has declared a state of national disaster over high youth unemployment and job losses linked to US tariffs and aid cuts that will last until June 2027. President Trump is expected to finalise tariffs on several countries including Lesotho and South Africa on August 1. In Lesotho, people are hoping for tariffs on the lower end at 10% but are preparing for a hit as high as 50%. Any export duties will have an impact on industry here which has benefitted from 25 years of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) duty-free trade agreement with the US. "That is multilateralism - to trade with one another and leverage on each other's strengths," Lesotho's minister of trade and industry Mokhethi Shelile tells us. "We did not think an economy so advanced, the pioneer of multilateralism, to renege and turn back on that very principle that has made it so big. "We are done talking [with the US]. We are waiting for a response, for a final solution from them. We are told it will come soon but we don't know how soon." We interviewed the minister at a celebration launching a government-sponsored factory expansion in Lesotho's second city Maputsoe. The factory is only 5km from the border gate into South Africa, its main export destination. Unemployed garment workers are huddled around the locked gates hoping to appeal to the trade minister for jobs. Inside the warehouse, women furiously produced clothing for the South African market. Minister Shelile tells us that this regional trade is part of Lesotho's solution but economists believe it is another dead end. "I don't think South Africa is an option for us given the problems that South Africa is going through itself," says economist and former minister of mining Lebohang Thotanyana. "South Africa has been hit by tariffs and is going to lose around half a million jobs as a result of the Trump effect. "Some of those jobs on the citrus farms and automobile industry in South Africa were held by Basotho so it means they will be directly affected there as well." Trade unionists in Lesotho's capital Maseru have been speaking to laid off workers to explain the context of the devastating job cuts. "It's really hard for them because what the people want is the job," says Ts'epang Nyaka-Nyaka, general secretary of the Economic Freedom Trade Union. He is expecting his own wife to potentially lose her job at a factory exporting to American denim brand Levis. The two-thousand-member union is rapidly shrinking as more lay-offs are announced. "They want the job - not the politics," he says.