{"id":93054,"date":"2025-09-07T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93054"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:00:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:00:29","slug":"visiting-the-us-is-about-to-get-more-expensive-for-foreign-travellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=93054","title":{"rendered":"Visiting the US is about to get more expensive for foreign travellers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 10 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

Visitors to the US from some of the nation\u2019s closest allies will soon be required to pay higher fees outlined in the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d <\/p>\n

Specifically, a\u00a0hike to the fees\u00a0associated with the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, which processes travel applications from residents of more than 40 countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program.<\/p>\n

Those countries include the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and most of Europe, as well as a handful of countries in other regions, including Qatar in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Prior to the passage of President Trump\u2019s signature legislation, applicants to the ESTA system, as it\u2019s known, paid $21. Now that the mandatory fee will nearly double on September 30 to $40.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of several fee increases associated with travel to the US from abroad. Travellers arriving through a land border will also see their fees go up with an increase in\u00a0<\/strong>the I-94 Arrival\/Departure Record cost. <\/p>\n

Right now, travellers required to pay the fee only have to part with $6. That amount jumps to $30 at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Lastly, travellers from China will be asked to pay a $30 enrollment fee for the Electronic Visa Update System. <\/p>\n

The September 30 effective date for the fee increases was outlined in a recent\u00a0notice in the Federal Register.<\/p>\n

The increase in fees, combined with the looming $250 \u201cvisa integrity fee\u201d for many travellers from non-visa waiver countries, comes at a time when travel to the US from abroad is in a major slump.<\/p>\n

As CNN\u2019s Natasha Chen reported,\u00a0many Canadians and other international visitors\u00a0to the US are staying away. The World Travel and Tourism Council projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025. <\/p>\n

It was the only country out of 184 economies analysed by the council, a global tourism advocacy organisation, that will see a decline this year.<\/p>\n

The new visa integrity fee has not yet been applied. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security repeated to CNN that it \u201crequires cross-agency coordination before implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown said he didn\u2019t think the increase in fees will be much of a \u201chindrance\u201d for most travellers. <\/p>\n

But he said the visa integrity fee is an entirely new thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be intriguing to see because lots of questions are out there,\u201d he told CNN Travel. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we pay the fee, but how does it get refunded? Who is tracking compliance? How do you prove compliance?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"VisitingVisitors to the US from some of the nation\u2019s closest allies will soon be required to pay higher fees outlined in the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1910,10,9,8100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-visiting-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}