The United States raises the price of most visas for foreign visitors by more than 30% over increased security costs.

The State Department announced late Thursday that the application fee for a US nonimmigrant visa will increase from USD 100 to USD 131 as of January 1. The application fee for immigrant visas will also increase, from USD 335 to USD 355.

This increase is part of an effort to cover costs for heightened security measures and other enhancements to the visa application process imposed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

According to the official statement, the previous fees were lower than the cost of processing visas and the Department had been "absorbing" the additional cost.

"We are now collecting 10 fingerprints from each applicant and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allows us to do this," the Department's report says.

The measure of collecting fingerprints and checking them against a terrorist suspect database is part of the US-VISIT program, adopted after the September 11 terror attacks. The program is scheduled to be fully implemented in all US international airports by the end of 2008.

Non-immigrant visa applicants who paid the prior $100 application fee before January 1 will be processed only if they are scheduled and appear for a visa interview before January 31, the Department also said.

The only foreign visitors unaffected by the increases will be citizens of the 27 mainly Western European countries who do not need visas unless they want to stay in the US for longer than 90 days.

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