Visitors to the US from some of the nation's closest allies will soon be required to pay higher fees outlined in the Trump administration's "One Big Beautiful Bill." Specifically, a hike to the fees associated with the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which processes travel applications from residents of more than 40 countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program.
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.
Prior to the passage of President Trump's signature legislation, applicants to the ESTA system, as it's known, paid $21. Now that mandatory fee will nearly double on September 30 to $40.
It's one of several fee increases associated with travel to the US from abroad. Travelers arriving through a land border will also see their fees go up with an increase in the I-94 Arrival/Departure Record cost. Right now, travelers required to pay the fee only have to part with $6. That amount jumps to $30 at the end of the month.
Lastly, travelers from China will be asked to pay a $30 enrollment fee for the Electronic Visa Update System. The September 30 effective date for the fee increases was outlined in a recent notice in the Federal Register.
The increase in fees, combined with the looming $250 "visa integrity fee" for many travelers from non-visa waiver countries, comes at a time when travel to the US from abroad is in a major slump.
As CNN's Natasha Chen reported, many Canadians and other international visitors to 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. It was the only country out of 184 economies analyzed by the council, a global tourism advocacy organization, that will see a decline this year.
The new visa integrity fee has not yet been applied. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security repeated to CNN that it "requires cross-agency coordination before implementation."
Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown said he didn't think the increase in fees will be much of a "hindrance" for most travelers. But he said the visa integrity fee is an entirely new thing.
"It will be intriguing to see because lots of questions are out there," he told CNN Travel. "So we pay the fee, but how does it get refunded? Who is tracking compliance? How do you prove compliance?"
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