Topics: Travel, Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Money, World News
As if there isn't already enough cash to fork out and documents to get sorted before visiting the United States, a new 'visa integrity fee' is set to be thrown into the equation.
That's right, from 1 October, some travellers entering the US will have to cough up a further $250, on top of the other already existing fees, amid Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration.
This new rule means visitors from non-visa waiver countries around the world, like Mexico, Argentina, India, Brazil and China, are going to dig deep and pay more money before entering America.
According to the U.S. Travel Association and Reuters, this additional fee increases the total visa cost to $442, making it one of the highest visitor fees in the world.
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This means that, as expected, overseas arrivals and tourism are continuing to fall in the US, applying mounting pressure to the travel industry.
And the figures speak for themselves as overseas travel has fallen 3.1 percent year-on-year in July to 19.2 million visitors, according to government data.
Meanwhile, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, international visitor spending in America is expected to fall below $169 billion this year, a decrease from $181 billion in 2024.
The new fee, which has divided opinion, was brought in as part of Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' and tourists will have to pay the one-off cost at the time their visa is issued.
Gabe Rizzi, President of global travel management company Altour, told Reuters: "Any friction we add to the traveller experience is going to cut travel volumes by some amount.
"As the summer ends this will become a more pressing issue, and we'll have to factor the fees into travel budgets and documentation."
Even with the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Los Angeles 2028 Olympics on the horizon, it seems that the US president's tariffs, cuts to foreign aid, and immigration policies have put a lot of tourists off the country as a destination.
It comes just months after Trump announced a ban on citizens from 12 different countries travelling to the US in a bid to 'prevent national security threats', with seven others facing restrictions.
Announcing the ban in June, he said: "We don't want 'em. Very simply, we cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen."
At the time, he also revealed that the list could be amended, meaning that countries could be added or removed, however the administration sees fit.
Talking about his initial travel ban in 2017, the POTUS said: "During my first administration, I restricted the entry of foreign nationals into the United States, which successfully prevented national security threats from reaching our borders and which the Supreme Court upheld.
"It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes."
Trump added that 'during the visa-issuance process', it must be made very clear that people do not intend to 'harm Americans or our national interests'.
