US adds a $250 fee to student and other visas
A new ‘visa integrity fee’ now stacks on top of the F-1 and most other US visas — a fresh cost for the largest group of foreign students in America.
Indian students bound for the United States face a new charge in 2026: a $250 "visa integrity fee" now applies to most non-immigrant visas, including the F-1 student visa, according to advisers tracking the change. The core system is otherwise intact — the F-1, Optional Practical Training, and the three-year STEM OPT extension all remain — but the fee lands on top of an application process that has grown slower and more heavily scrutinised. India now sends more students to American universities than any other country, so the cost falls on Indian families more than on anyone else.
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