Bisdak Babbles

I visited the US Bureau of Consular Affairs’ website, and I was surprised to see that Filipinos who wish to apply for a tourist visa in the US don’t have to pay for anything! Yes, the nonimmigrant visa is free! So if you have plans to visit Las Vegas or get one of those Orlando vacations, then now is the best time to do it! Tourism has also slowed down due to recession so you could get very cheap accomodations everywhere. But then people are also wary of spending on unnecessary things, worse, people (like me) don’t have anything to spend.

I have no idea when this waiving of nonimmigrant visa fees was implemented, but the reason is: “reciprocity”. Taken from the US Bureau of Consular Affairs:
Nonimmigrant visa fees are based on “reciprocity,” (what another country charges a United States citizen for a similar-type of visa). The United States strives to eliminate visa issuance fees whenever possible; however, when a foreign government imposes such fees on U.S. citizens for certain types of visas, the United States will impose a “reciprocal” fee to nationals of that country for similar-type of visas.

Update:  I have asked a friend who has applied for a US tourist visa.  The visa is free, but the “processing fee” is not.  So sorry for jumping into conclusion.  The processing fee costs US$131.