New US Consular fees to be implemented July 13

The US State Department is set to implement a new schedule of fees for passports, immigrant visas and other consular services, the US Embassy said in its recent advisory. It came 15 days after the embassy first announced the new set of fees for at least 27 of its consular services, which included immigrant and non-immigrant visa. Under the new schedule, fees for employment visa have more than doubled, from $355 (about P16,500) to $720 (P33,400). Fees for family-based immigrant visa and for other immigrant visas (special immigrant visa, diversity visa, among others) went down from the uniform fee of $355 to $330 (P15,300) and $305 (P14,100) respectively. Other revised fees are as follows:

CLick image for a larger view

The Embassy said the revised fees will cover actual operating expenses for the 301 overseas consular posts, 23 domestic passport agencies and other centers that provide these consular services to US and foreign citizens. “The 27 adjusted fees are based on a Cost of Service Study completed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs in June 2009. The study, which was the most detailed and exhaustive ever conducted by the Department of State, established the true cost of providing these consular services, which by law must be recovered through collection of fees," the Embassy added. — Jerrie Abella/LBG, GMANews.TV