The State Department has modified one of their policies with regards to immigrant visa (IV) fees for certain classes of IV applicants from select nationalities. During the Trump Administration, a Presidential Proclamation was in effect for the course of three years which made it impossible for individuals from the following countries to pursue an IV to come to the United States:

·      Burma, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Yemen 

Effective immediately, individuals from the above nationalities can have their immigrant visa fees waived if they are applying for a new IV to come to the United States. In order for the conditions to be met for the visa fee exemption, applicants need to have been denied an IV between December 8th, 2017 and January 19th, 2020. The applicant must also have been ineligible for the IV based on the sole reasoning of the exclusionary Trump-era policy. Finally, the applicant is filing a new IV application.[1]

For some applicants who were refused an immigrant visa because of other reasons aside from the Presidential Proclamation that was in place, such applicants will not be able to get a visa fee exemption unless their refusal was overcome by a consular officer.

In addition, the new policy put in place by the State Department is not retroactive, meaning that unfortunately old visa application fees will not be refunded at this time. This new rule only affects those who wish to go through consular processing once again.