Over visa fee increase, US, Sierra Leone in a tit-for-tat

The Governments of the United States and Sierra Leone have increased by $ 20 nonimmigrant visa fees for each other’s citizens wishing to visit each other’s country.

Effective Friday 13 April 2012, Americans and Sierra Leoneans will require to pay $ 160. A press release from the Sierra Leone mission in Washington DC says the increase is as a result of an announced increase made by the US embassy in Freetown, calling it “consistent with the principle of reciprocity which governs relations between countries on consular matters”.

The US embassy in Freetown had earlier announced an increase in non-immigrant visa fees but reduced that for immigrant visa fees. But its Acting Public Affairs Officer told Politico that his government would not use “reciprocity” in the manner it was used in the press release.

Douglas Sun said “reciprocity” did not necessarily apply in the case of an increase in visa processing fees because the cost of doing so in Freetown might not be the same as doing so in Washington DC. He said fees paid for visa were for cost of producing such. A US embassy press release announcing the increase says the State Department “is required to recover, as far as possible, the cost of processing visas through the collection of application fees”.  The release continues that for “a number of reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of processing nonimmigrant visas”. It says the increase in visa processing fees will support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities and more staff required to meet increased visa demand.

Sierra Leone’s foreign minister, James Bandabla Dauda told Politico that he would have thought that visa processing was more expensive in Washington than in Freetown. He however said that he was not aware of the increase in visa fees, saying it was a matter for the finance ministry and the immigration department. Asked why that was since the US embassy visa fee increase was announced by the State Department and that the reciprocal increase was announced by the Sierra Leone embassy in Washington DC, the minister was not forthcoming.

Following is the detail of the US embassy visa fees adjustments:

Nonimmigrant Visa Processing Fees

Because of a reallocation of costs associated with immigrant visas, all categories of immigrant visa processing fees will decrease.

Immigrant Visa Processing Fees

Fee information may also be found on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website, travel.state.gov, and on the websites of U.S. embassies and consulates.