U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica Increases Visa Fees

Starting in 2008, the U.S. Embassy will charge $131 for a meeting to determine U.S. visa eligibility. Anyone looking to apply to get a visa to the United States must first pay $14 for eight minutes of call time to the embassy call center to make the appointment, and then pay the $131 meeting fee at Banco Nacional.

Costa Rica Passport
Costa Rica News — Visa prices raised for Costa Ricans

The $31 increase is due to new required security measures, such as taking digital imprints of each applicant’s fingers and face recognition technology, as well as purchasing new information technology systems and taking inflation into account.

Even if applicants already paid the first $100, if their appointment is after Feb. 1, 2008, they will have to pay the additional $31. Anyone who already made any appointment with the Embassy for Jan. 31, 2008 or before will pay the original total of $100.

The last time the price was raised was in Nov. 2002, a year after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Photo courtesy of WorldPassports.com

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