Following an increase in consular fees for non-immigrant visa applications, the Department of State recently announced changes in fees for immigrant visa applications as well as passport services for U.S. citizens.

As before, the new fees will help to cover the true cost of processing visa and passport applications and the operating costs for consular posts overseas, domestic passport agencies and other service centers.

The prior fee for immigrant visa applications was $355.  The new fees are as follows:

• Family Based Preference Visas – Fee lowered to $330.
• Employment Based Preference visas – Fee increased to $720.
• Other immigrant visas – Fee lowered to $305.

Additional charges for immigrant visas, like the security surcharge, the diversity visa lottery surcharge, the fees for reviews of affidavits of support and determining returning resident status will also see changes in their cost.

U.S. citizens wishing to apply for or renew their passports will see fee hike as well.  Fees for Adult passport applications will rise from $100 to $135 and minor passport applications will see an increase from $85 to $105.  Adult passport renewals will now cost $110, up from $75.  Those wishing to obtain a passport card, which allows for easy travel in the western hemisphere, will see a slight increase from $45 to $55 for adults and $35 to $40 for minors.

For more information on the new processing fees, click here.