US hikes student visa fee; check the revised amount

“The Department of State published a Final Rule regarding increases to certain nonimmigrant visa application (NIV) processing fees and the Border Crossing Card (BCC) for Mexican citizens age 15 and over,” the notice states. “The fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2s and BCCs), and other non-petition based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will increase from $160 to $185.”

This means, according to the current exchange value, Indian students will have to pay over Rs 14,000 as the student visa fees if they get admission in any US-based university.

According to the Open Doors Report 2022, the number of Indian students has more than doubled, with the country’s share in the total number of international students going up from 11.8 per cent to 21 per cent. For two successive years, between 2018-19 and 2019-20, as well as 2019-20 and 2020-21, the number of Indian students enrolled in US universities had fallen by 4.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively.