This rule proposes adjustments in current fees for consular services. These adjusted fees would take effect on October 1, 2004. Specifically, the rule makes changes in the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services ("Schedule of Fees" or "Schedule"). The primary objective of the adjustments to the Schedule of Fees is to ensure that the costs of consular services are recovered through user fees to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law. The Department of State has reviewed its current consular fees in connection with completion of a new cost of services study. As a result of that review, there are nine proposed fee changes on the Schedule, of which seven are increases and two are decreases of existing fees. Most notably, the Schedule increases the Diversity Visa Lottery surcharge for immigrant visa application from $100 to $375 to make this particular surcharge more consistent with the costs the Department is authorized to recover through the surcharge and with the full-cost recovery basis on which other consular fees are set and collected. In addition, the Schedule incorporates changes in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fees that the Department of State collects on behalf of DHS that went into effect on April 30, 2004. Certain consular services performed for no fee are included in the Schedule so that members of the public will be aware of significant consular services provided by the Department that they may request and for which they will not be charged. A minor technical change is also being made in the Schedule by combining the "no fee" service of loan processing with the "no fee" services relating to the welfare and whereabouts of a U.S. citizen.
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