Fee rises for travel to U.S.

The U.S. has just jumped the fee from $14 to $21 for an ESTA—a document needed by travelers from countries included in the U.S. Visa Waiver program.

The Visa Waiver program allows visitors from most European countries and a few others including Chile, Japan, Korea, Brunei and Taiwan to visit the U.S. without a visa for up to 90 days at a time; the ESTA permit is good for two years. ESTA stands for Electronic System for Travel Authorization.

The fee hike was approved in 2019, but held in abeyance until last week. When the Visa Waiver program started in 2009, ESTA was free, but then a $10 fee was added to support U.S. tourism promotion. In 2014 a $4 fee was added to cover the cost of running the system, and presumably that's where the additional $7 will go.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service, which runs the system, doesn't think it's a big deal: “As the $7 fee increase is relatively small compared to costs involved to travel to the United States, CBP anticipates that the fee increase will not adversely affect travel to the United States.”