Mumbai, Oct 16: Between September ‘02 and August ‘03, the US consulate in Mumbai issued 83,026 non-immigrant visas. Although Mumbai is the busiest US consular operation in south Asia, this is an indication of the number of travellers that recent changes in US visa fees will impact. One of these could be you. Effective October 11, ‘03, these fee changes may take a bit of understanding for the infrequent traveller. First, it is important to understand the break-up of the fees charged for obtaining a US non-immigrant visa. A non-immigrant visa is issued to a person intending to travel to the US for a specific period of time, without the intention of remaining there for the long term.
These would include tourists, businesspersons, students and speciality workers, among others. The fee structure is broken into two parts: the visa issuance fee and the visa application fee.
Now, most non-diplomatic and non-official visas issued by US consulates require a visa ‘application’ fee that recovers for the US the costs associated with manufacturing, processing and printing the visa. This fee is non-refundable, even if your visa application is finally rejected.
The visa ‘issuance’ fee, on the other hand, is based solely on reciprocity — that is, the fee that another country changes a US citizen for the same-type visa. This fee will be refunded to you if your visa is refused.

Till October 11, the issuance fee was $75 (Rs 3,660) while the application fee was $100 (Rs 4,900). From October 11 onwards, the issuance fee has been reduced to $50 (Rs 2,300) while the non-refundable visa application fee remains $100 (Rs 4,600). Additionally, these charges have been further affected by an adjustment in the dollar-rupee exchange rate used for all consular transaction from Rs 49 to Rs 46 to a dollar.
Considering this, the rupee-denominated application fee’s cost has fallen to Rs 4,600. The issuance fee, on the other hand, has seen a double reduction: an absolute cut of $25 and a effective reduction due to repegging of currencies.
The fee reductions in issuance fees were made to bring US visa fees in line with the $150 visa fee charged to US citizens by the Government of India.
Secondly, certain visa categories have been completely exempted from paying an issuance fee. These include student, exchange visitor, transit and crewman visas. “Since India does not charge more than $100 for student visas and the other visa types mentioned above we are able to eliminate the issuance fee for these visas,” notes a US consulate press note. Let’s consider an example to understand this more clearly. If you are a student who has been accepted to a US college or university, on receipt of I-20 (a legal document that accompanies the college acceptance letter), you will apply for a US visa, 90 days prior to the start of your class. Your application must contain one bank draft favouring “VFS a/c — US Visa” payable in Mumbai in the amount of Rs 5,000. The amount includes the application fee of Rs 4,600 ($100) and a logistics fee of Rs 400. Both are non-refundable. If you opt for the courier service offered, you will have to include a further Rs 120 in your draft.
If your visa application is granted, your stamped passport will be returned with no additional cost. The same is true if you are an exchange visitor (that is students, research scholars or faculty invited to the US under exchange programmes), a crew member or in transit. On the other hand, if you don’t fall into any of these categories and are making a non-diplomatic or non-official visit to the US, then in addition to the first draft for Rs 5,000 (or Rs 5,120), you will have to submit a second draft favouring “American Consulate General, Mumbai” payable in Mumbai in the amount of Rs 2,300 ($50). If your visa is subsequently rejected, this second amount will be refunded to you.
One has to note that demand drafts can be drawn on nationalised banks or local branches of foreign banks. Demand drafts drawn on co-operative banks are not accepted.