A new US$250 visa integrity fee, charged when the visa is issued

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed 4 July 2025, created a US$250 visa integrity fee on nonimmigrant visas. F-1 and J-1 are included, and it is charged per visa, so each dependent pays it too.

It is collected at a different point from the other fees: the MRV and SEVIS fees are paid before the interview, while this one is charged when the visa is approved and issued, cannot be waived or reduced, and may rise with inflation. Rollout varies by post. A USCIS Federal Register notice of 22 July 2025 states the fee requires cross-agency coordination and will be implemented in a future publication, and as of early October 2026 there is still no single global start date, with some consulates collecting it and others not — so check with the post handling your case before the interview. Budget for it anyway: the MRV fee for an F or M visa is US$185 and the SEVIS fee US$350, so with this US$250 the visa stage alone comes to US$785 a head.