Colombians seeking to travel, study, or work in the United States will soon face a significant financial hurdle, starting Oct. 1, 2025, as U.S. visa costs will reach historic highs, making them the most expensive in the region for Colombian applicants.
This change, which makes part of a broader restructuring announced by the U.S. Department of State and USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), comes at a time of rising inflation and growing migration pressure. For many Colombians, the dream of traveling to the U.S. is about to come a luxury.
Changes to the US visa process and costs for Colombians
According to official documents published earlier this year, several categories of U.S. visas will see a sharp increase in cost due to a sweeping legislative reform (signed in July 2025). What Donald Trump once called his “one big, beautiful bill” has now passed by the U.S. Congress, bringing significant consequences for Colombians. While the new visa fee is a global policy, truth is Colombia has been especially affected due to ongoing diplomatic tensions with the U.S. The Trump administration’s policies have resulted in higher costs, stricter scrutiny, and more frequent rejections, making it a more difficult and expensive for Colombians to visit the United States.
Starting Oct. 1, some processing costs will even increase as much as 135%. This will be reflected for example on the most common visa applications from Colombia, the B-1/B-2 visas, used for tourism or short-term, business. This two will be hit the hardest. They have a current cost of US$185 (approximately 739.000 Colombian pesos), and the new cost (starting Oct. 1), will be of US$435 (approximately COP 1.956.000), showing a 135% increase. Additionally, the new amount includes a US$250 integrity fee added to the base application, aimed at funding visa enforcement and fraud prevention.
Just for perspective, in 2023, a U.S. tourist visa for a Colombian cost about US$160 or roughly 600,000 COP. By October 2025, that same application will cost nearly US$428 (roughly 1.8 million COP), three times more than just two years ago.
But as mentioned, the law doesn’t stop at tourist visas. It also affects a wide range of other visa categories, including F/M visas, for academical or technical studies; J visas, for cultural exchange programs; H-1B, L, O, P, R visas; which are all employed-bases categories. Each of these will now be subject to the new fee structure, with costs in many cases doubling or tripling depending on the type and duration of the visa.
Asylum and humanitarian relief now have a price
For the first time in U.S. history, the legislation imposes mandatory fees for asylum seekers and humanitarian cases. The annual starting Oct. 1 while awaiting asylum case decision will have a cost of US$100, work permit for asylum seekers (EAD) will have a cost of US$550 and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) application will have a cost of US$500.
Global Refuge, a prominent immigration advocacy group, has denounced the new law stating: “For the first time … access to humanitarian protection and due legal process in the U.S. will come at a cost that is unaffordable for many. The law imposes new fees and drastically increases existing ones.”
Immigration attorneys and human rights organizations in Colombia and the U.S. warn that the new law could chill legal migration from Latin America. “This is not about enforcement, it’s about exclusion. The financial barrier is real, and it’s going to hit Colombian applicants harder than the most”, said Carolina Mejia, an immigration lawyer based in Miami.
While the “one big, beautiful bill” was framed as a fix to bureaucratic inefficiencies, its real-world effects will be deeply felt by Colombians. As of October, visiting Disneyland, attending a U.S. university, or even requesting asylum in the U.S. will come at a historically high cost, and for many, it may be a cost-prohibitive altogether. In an interconnected world, affordability matters, and unless the economic tide shifts, the ‘American Dream’ vacation may remain just that: a dream, for most Colombians.