October 4, 2002--The U.S. Department of State will increase the nonimmigrant visa fee for the second time this year. As reported on the American Immigration Lawyer's Association Infonet the $65 machine-readable visa fee will increase to $100 effective November 1, 2002. Applications received before November 1, will be assessed the current fee. The most recent fee increase, effective this June 1 of this year, raised the fee from $45.

In justifying the fee increase, the Department of State reported a 20% reduction in the number of visa applications in the last fiscal year resulting in decreased revenues. Conversely, the visa processing workload has increased dramatically due to new security procedures and more frequent interviews.