Madam President. the State Department authorization bill includes a provision. requested by the administration. that would provide authority to the Department of State to charge a fee or surcharge for proc.easing machinereadable nonimmigrant visas. bordercrossing identification cards. and regular nonimmigrant visas. The Department intends to exercise this authority. if provided. by imposing a $20 application fee for machine readable nonimmigrant visas. While this fee will not fall on American citizens. it will have an impact on those who cross our borders as either tourists or businessmen. Therefore. it could have a negative impact on efforts to open our borders to more trade and commerce. In addition. the United States recently imposed two increases to user fees that affect crossborder traffic. the Customs user fee was increased from $5 to $6.50. and the INS international airline fee was increased from $5 to $6. Now. the income from both these fees goes to support worthy programs. indeed. the income from the visa fee will support improved border security and monitoring of aliens who enter the United States. However. most worthy programs are supported through general tax revenues. To the extent these programs are worthy. perhaps they should compete with other programs of Government that are not susceptible to user fees.
Keywords matched
visa border security visas