The new visa integrity fee was included as a provision of Trump’s recent “One Big Beautiful Bill” and it requires a fee of $250 to be paid by “any alien issued a nonimmigrant visa at the time of issuance.” The fee cannot be waived or reduced.
Nonimmigrant travelers include tourists, business travelers, temporary workers, students and more. Already this year, approximately one million nonimmigrant visas have been issued per month despite the Trump Administration’s border crackdowns, according to TIME.
Citizens of Canada and Bermuda will not need visas to enter the U.S. and some countries participating in a Visa Waiver Program will also be able to evade the fee.
A State Department spokesperson told TIME that the visa integrity fee was enacted by Congress “to support the administration’s priorities of strengthening immigration enforcement, deterring visa overstays, and funding border security.” A spokesperson from the U.S. Travel Association told CNBC Travel “significant challenges and unanswered questions regarding implementation,” surround the illusive new mandate.
This spring the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted the U.S. would lose $12.5 billion in international traveler spending this year. Their recent report indicated the U.S. was the only country among the 184 analyzed that would see a decline in visitor spending in 2025. But according to Forbes the travel industry could stand to lose even more. The outlet’s projections for industry losses are as high as $29 billion dollars all thanks to Trump’s policies. President and CEO of WTTC Julia Simpson said in a statement: “While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign.”
The Trump Administration has not blinked an eye at these losses just yet. Forbes reports that a Senate committee has scrapped $80 million from the budget of Brand USA, the country’s public-private destination marketing organization.
But time is running out according to Simpson. “Without urgent action to restore international traveler confidence, it could take several years for the U.S. just to return to pre-pandemic levels of international visitor spending,” she said.
