Travelers who require a non-immigrant visa to enter the U.S. will need to pay a new "visa integrity fee" to visit. The Department of Homeland Security says the new measure will "restore integrity" to the nation's immigration system, but some are concerned it may dissuade international visitors.

Washington

The United States government is preparing to introduce a 'visa integrity fee' of at least $250 for travelers who require a non-immigrant visa to enter the country. This fee, part of the new One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is in addition to existing visa charges and does not apply to those from visa waiver program countries. The Department of Homeland Security states the fee is intended to restore integrity to the US immigration system, as a significant portion of undocumented residents are believed to have overstayed their visas.

While the fee may be reimbursable for travelers who comply with their visa terms, such as not working illegally and departing promptly, the process for reimbursement remains unclear. Immigration attorneys advise clients to consider the fee non-reimbursable for now, as the system for refunds could take years to establish. The travel industry and potential visitors have expressed concerns about the added cost, with some predicting it could discourage tourism and regular travel to the US.

Why the U.S. is charging a $250 'visa integrity fee'

So here's the thing, though travelers headed to the US may soon need to pay a hefty new visa fee to enter CNBC's travel editor Monica Petrelli is here with all the details and apparently it's a it's a hundred bucks but if you're lucky you may get your money back. It's even more than that Marty. So it's part of the new one big beautiful bill act and it's called the visa integrity fee and it it is really set to add more costs on for some travelers. Now here's what we know, we know the fee right now is around $250. It's going to be at least $250. It could go higher. It applies to anyone who needs a non-immigrant visa to enter. That means if your country is part of the visa waiver program you will not have to pay this. It is on top of other visa fees and it may be reimbursable for those who comply with the terms of their visa, meaning not working while they're in the United States and leaving within five days of the expiration date. However what we don't know is when the fee will begin, how it will be implemented, and how people will get their money back. Now the purpose of this new fee, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after I reached out to them last week, is to restore integrity in the US immigration system. Now normally visa fees dealt with by the State Department. This new fee handled by the Department of Homeland Security which deals with immigration. Now if we look back to the numbers between 2016 and 2022, about one to two percent of people overstayed their visas. So the vast majority of people do in fact come and leave. But of the 11 million people thought to be living in the United States right now illegally, about 42 percent of those thought to be there from overstaying visas. Wow, 250 bucks. What about reimbursements getting your money back? What's the possibility of that happening? So a number of immigration attorneys reached out to me saying that they're advising their clients right now to think of these as non-reimbursable because they said it's really easy to have a government take your money, much harder to get it back. We can see also that the Congressional Budget Office estimating that this fee could net the US government around 29 billion dollars. And one of the reasons is because it says it will take years to put in place the system to be able to handle those reimbursements. Plus they believe many people simply won't ask for them back because the money is only reimbursable after the visa expires. A lot of visas to the United States are years long. So will people remember? Will they ask? This is why it's looking like, exactly, will they bother? Yeah. So the people in the travel industry and also travelers themselves, what are they saying about this visa fee? So reactions right now really ranging from confusion to downright anger. Anger coming on the part of travel companies. We just heard Contessa talking about all the different issues US is having getting the international travelers back and as well as from the travelers themselves. You know if I have a family of four, I'm coming from India, I'd say this is a thousand dollars more of money that I may or may not get back. I may take my business elsewhere. Also people that are invested in travel companies not happy about this in terms of all of these additional costs. And the data right based on what we know so far about visitor arrival trends and numbers etc. How are people modeling this? How is this going to affect tourist arrivals? I think a lot of people believe that it will dissuade regular travelers from coming in. And the other question is will it achieve its stated purpose? So will it keep out an overstayer? You'd have to think if I, my intention is to go to the United States and to overstay my visa, to live there, to kind of slip in and to stay. Will I be willing to forfeit a $250 fee? I suppose for people that can't scrape together the money for regular visas plus this new fee and the flight, it could prevent that. But I don't believe this will be like a panacea to that problem. So whether the balance, the right balance here between not dissuading regular travelers and also achieving the immigration goals of the current US administration, I think many wondering about that. We shall see. All right. Excellent as always. Thank you. CNBC's travel editor there, Monica Petrilli, on the story. And if you want more, including details, get onto our digital arm, CNBC.com. Go there and double click.

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Breakdown