The Department of State (DOS) announced that new consular service fees will go into effect on September 12, 2014.  Specifically, the DOS amended its Schedule of Fees for Consular Services (Schedule) as follows:

Consular   Service Current   Fee New   Fee
E Visas (Investor/Trade) $270 $205
K Visas (Fiancé(e)/Spouse) $240 $265
J-1 Waivers of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement $215 $120
Employment-Based Immigrant Visa Applications $405 $345
Family-Based Immigrant Visa Applications $230 $325
Returning Resident   Immigrant Visa Application $220 $205
Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship $450 $2,350

The DOS has amended its to Schedule to reflect the amount of time that consular officials actually spend on processing each of the above-referenced cases.  Some fees have increased and others have decreased. Applicants should ensure that they are submitting the correct fee once the new fees go into effect on September 12, 2014.  (Please note that the original announcement in the Federal Register referenced the wrong effective date – September 12, 2014 is correct.)               

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Photo of Ian Macdonald Ian Macdonald

Ian R. Macdonald Co-Chairs the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice’s International Employment, Immigration & Workforce Strategies group. He focuses his practice on developing, assessing and managing global mobility programs for multinational companies on a range of challenges affecting the movement of people capital

Ian R. Macdonald Co-Chairs the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice’s International Employment, Immigration & Workforce Strategies group. He focuses his practice on developing, assessing and managing global mobility programs for multinational companies on a range of challenges affecting the movement of people capital domestically and internationally, including secondment agreements, benefits transferability, local host country employment concerns and immigration.

Ian and his team work closely with companies to manage and modify, where needed, corporate immigration programs to maximize efficiency, service and regulatory compliance levels. He is experienced with the full range of business immigration sponsorship categories (visas and permanent residence), anti-discrimination rules to reduce or eliminate risk of employment litigation, employer sanction cases, and I-9 and E-Verify compliance. Ian assists clients with establishing risk-based performance standards (RBPS) and Department of Homeland Security protocol, providing risk assessment assistance to corporations subject to Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) and assisting clients with ITAR/Export Control compliance within the immigration context.

Ian has developed strategic relationships abroad that he utilizes when working with clients to ensure compliance with foreign registration requirements. He is experienced with analyzing complex global mobility opportunities on country-specific matters to facilitate the transfer of personnel. Ian is also experienced in counseling employers on immigration strategy as well as immigration consequences of mergers and acquisitions, reduction in workforces, and furloughs.

Prior to joining the firm, Ian worked for the United Nations, various non-governmental think tanks and corporate law firms in London, Washington, D.C., New York and Atlanta.