Overview

• The $250 visa integrity fee is set to take effect in October under the Big, Beautiful Bill and applies to most nonimmigrant visa holders.
• The Congressional Budget Office forecasts about $27 billion in revenue over a decade based on roughly 11 million annual payers without accounting for broader economic impacts.
• Tourism Economics and U.S. travel associations estimate the surcharge could deter 5.4 percent of visitors—almost one million fewer trips—and cost about $11 billion in lost spending and tax receipts over three years.
• The State Department and DHS have yet to publish rules on fee collection, inflation indexing or reimbursements, prompting application surges and talk of legal challenges.
• Exempting Visa Waiver Program nationals concentrates the fee’s burden on fast-growing markets like India and Brazil, raising concerns for event-driven travel and seasonal labor.