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The $750 Expedited U.S. Visa Interview Fee, Explained
For the first time, you can pay for a faster U.S. visa interview. A temporary rule in force from 1 July to 31 December 2026 lets B-1/B-2 applicants pay $750 for an expedited appointment. This page is written from the rule itself — 91 FR 34768 — because most of what is written about it elsewhere confuses it with the long-standing free emergency-appointment process.
What the rule actually creates
The Department of State amended its Schedule of Fees for Consular Services (22 CFR 22.1) to add one new service:
a $750 fee for an expedited B1/B2, business and tourism, nonimmigrant visa (NIV) interview appointment.
The service is defined precisely: an appointment within ten business days after paying the fee, subject to availability of expedited appointments at the location selected.
Who it is for, and who it is not for
| Visa classes | B-1, B-2, and B-1/B-2 only |
| Where | "Limited overseas posts", listed on travel.state.gov — not every embassy |
| When | 1 July 2026 through 31 December 2026, as a pilot |
| Not covered | F, M, J, H, L, O, P, E, K and every other class |
Students, workers and exchange visitors cannot use it. If you are in one of those classes and need a faster appointment, the free emergency-appointment request through your post's own process remains the only route.
How booking actually works, and where you can lose the money
Three operational details decide whether this goes well, and none of them are in the rule text — they come from the programme's own guidance.
- Mexico went first. U.S. consular posts in Mexico began offering expedited appointments on 21 July 2026, and were the first to do so. Other posts are added to the published list as the pilot expands, so check the list rather than assuming your post takes part.
- You get roughly five to ten minutes to pay. Selecting an expedited slot places a short hold on it while you pay the $750 online. If the payment is not completed inside that window the hold is released and the appointment goes back to the pool. Have the card ready before you start.
- Cancelling or not turning up forfeits the $750. The fee is not returned if you miss the appointment or cancel it. Treat the booking as final.
The pilot is also capped — on the order of 25,000 expedited requests across its run — which is another reason "subject to availability" is doing real work in the definition.
The $750 is on top of everything else
The expedite fee is a separate service charge. It does not replace the normal visa application fee. A B-1/B-2 applicant using it pays:
- $185 — the standard MRV application fee, non-refundable as always
- $750 — the expedite fee
Total: $935 in federal fees before any other cost. If a visa bond is required at your interview, that is additional again.
Why the fee is $750
The rule explains the figure directly: the Department costed the service using its standard activity-based methodology and estimates the cost of providing an expedited appointment at $750 per applicant. It is a cost-recovery fee, not a premium. The rule is explicit that the pilot exists to test the service and that the fee will be revisited when the pilot ends.
Is it worth it?
It depends entirely on the wait at your post. Two honest observations from the rule's structure:
- "Within ten business days" is a ceiling, not a promise of tomorrow. At a post with a three-week routine wait, $750 buys roughly a week. At a post with a four-month wait, it may buy months.
- "Subject to availability" means expedited slots are a limited pool. Paying does not guarantee a slot exists.
Check the Department's published wait times for your post before paying. If the routine wait is already short, the fee buys little.
The free emergency appointment still exists
This fee does not abolish the existing process for genuine emergencies — a medical crisis, a funeral, urgent unplanned business. Those requests go through your post's own procedure and are decided on the facts. The $750 fee is a paid fast lane for ordinary B-1/B-2 travel that does not meet that bar.
How the free route actually works
The mechanics catch people out, and three of them are worth knowing before you start. These are as the India posts publish them; the procedure varies by location, so read your own post's page.
You must book a normal appointment first. The sequence is: submit the DS-160, pay the visa fee, and schedule the first available interview appointment. Only then will a consular section consider an expedite request. You cannot request an earlier date instead of booking — you request it on top of a booking you already hold, and you pay the ordinary fee either way.
You get two requests. Applicants are permitted to create only two expedited appointment requests. That is a reason to assemble the evidence before submitting rather than firing off a request to see what happens.
Misrepresenting the urgency is recorded. The posts state that if it appears at interview that the reasons for urgent travel were misrepresented, the fact is noted on the case file and may adversely influence the outcome of the application. The downside is not a refused expedite request; it is a note against the visa decision itself.
What counts, and what you are expected to produce
The published grounds are an urgent, unforeseen situation: a funeral, urgent business travel, a medical emergency, a school start date, or an ESTA denial. That last one surprises people who assumed a rejected ESTA simply means applying normally.
The documentation expected is specific rather than a general plea. For urgent medical care, the India posts ask for a letter from your doctor describing the condition and why treatment is sought in the United States, a letter from the U.S. physician or hospital confirming they are prepared to treat the case and giving an approximate cost, and evidence of how that cost will be paid. For a funeral, the ground is the death of an immediate family member — mother, father, brother, sister or child, which is narrower than many people expect and excludes grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pay $750 to expedite a student or work visa interview?
No. The fee applies to B-1/B-2 appointments only.
Is the $750 refundable if no expedited slot is available?
The rule text itself does not address refunds, but the programme guidance does: the fee is forfeited if you cancel or fail to attend. You are also given only about five to ten minutes to pay after selecting a slot, and the hold is released if you miss that window. Check availability before you start, and treat the booking as final.
Does paying $750 guarantee an appointment within ten days?
No. The service is an appointment within ten business days subject to availability of expedited appointments at the location selected. Both conditions apply.
Is this the same as an emergency appointment?
No. Emergency appointments are free and require a qualifying reason. The $750 service requires no reason but is limited to B-1/B-2 and to participating posts.
Which embassies offer it?
A limited set of posts, listed on travel.state.gov. The rule does not enumerate them, and the list can change during the pilot.
We found five, by checking twenty. The AIS appointment service publishes post-level announcements, and the pilot turns up on some countries and not others — so the announcement discriminates rather than being boilerplate carried alongside the shared notices.
| Post | Pilot announcement dated |
|---|---|
| Mexico | 29 July 2026 |
| Colombia | 18 August 2026 |
| Costa Rica | 18 August 2026 |
| Guatemala | 18 August 2026 |
| Honduras | 18 August 2026 |
Nothing found on: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and Uruguay. All twenty were read on 15 September 2026.
The dates show how this is rolling out. Mexico's announcement is dated 29 July; four more followed together on 18 August — Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras.
These are announcement dates, not necessarily service start dates, and the two differ for Mexico: the programme guidance says Mexican posts began offering expedited appointments on 21 July 2026, eight days before the announcement we found is dated. We have not been able to verify which date marks the first bookable appointment against the primary list on travel.state.gov, so both are reported here rather than reconciled into one. Every post we found is in Latin America, and the pilot reached them in two waves three weeks apart.
It is not "Latin America", and it is not even "Central America". That is the part worth pausing on. Of the Central American posts we read, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica carry it while El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama do not — neighbouring countries on the same isthmus, split down the middle. Across the wider region, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay showed nothing either.
So whatever determines the list, geography does not explain it. Do not assume a neighbouring country's answer is yours — on this evidence, the country next door is as likely to differ as to match.
The two columns are not equally strong, and it matters. An announcement is good evidence a post takes part: the service is telling its own applicants about it. "Nothing found" is weaker — a post could join without announcing, or announce somewhere we did not look. Treat the table as findings and the list below it as we did not find it, not as it is not offered there.
We could not read the State Department's own pilot page, which serves a bot challenge, so there is no official list to check this against. What is above is a survey, not a roster, and a fast-moving one: three weeks separated the first wave from the second.
The method matters more than the five names. These announcements live on the Announcements tab of the appointment service, not on the embassy website — nothing on mx.usembassy.gov mentioned the pilot. If you want to know whether your post offers this, that tab is where to look, and it is not where most people look.
Does the fee end on 31 December 2026?
The temporary rule is in force through 31 December 2026. The Department states it will revisit the fee once the pilot is complete. It may be extended, changed, or dropped.
Sources
- 91 FR 34768 — Schedule of Fees for Consular Services: Visa and Citizenship Services Fee Changes (temporary final rule, effective 1 July 2026)
- 22 CFR 22.1 — Schedule of Fees for Consular Services
Related guides
Before paying to expedite
Check that a normal booking is actually unavailable first. See how to book a U.S. visa appointment.