Increase in fees for US consular services

The United States Department of State on Friday said it had revised the schedule of fees for consular services with effective from 1 June 2002, excerpt passport services.

A statement issued by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Accra said the non-immigrant visa application fee would increase from 45 dollars to 65 dollars, while the immigrant visa application fees rise from 325 dollars to 335 dollars.

It said, however, that passport related fees would be revised effective 19 August 2002, which would bring their fees in line with the actual cost of consular services. "This increased fee will recover the actual cost of the service including the Machine Readable Visa and processing through our sophisticated name-check technology.

It said adjusted to fees of services for American citizens overseas include the Consular Report of Birth Abroad documentation fee, which would be raised from 40 to 65 dollars whiles the fee for performance of notarial services would be lowered to a two-tiered schedule costing 20 to 30 dollars, depending on service rendered from 55 dollars.

The statement noted that the State Department was required by federal regulations and law to recover the costs of most consular services through user fees and must adjust the fee schedule periodically to comply with that requirement

It said the last major revision of the schedule fee was done in 1998. It said the new fee were essential to maintaining and improving high quality customer service while taking advantage of advances in information technology and enhancing the security features of those services that were related to homeland security.