ESTA rises again on 16 October, and the $250 visa integrity fee still has no start date

Visiting the United States costs more than it did a year ago, and several changes are still in motion. This is where the official rules stand on 12 October 2026.

ESTA goes up again on 16 October

If your passport is from a Visa Waiver Program country, such as the UK, Ireland, most of the EU, Australia, New Zealand or Japan, you need an approved ESTA before you board. The 2025 budget law, known as HR-1, raised the fee from $21 to $40 on 30 September 2025 and ties it to inflation. It has been $40.27 since 1 January 2026. A Federal Register notice sets it at $40.62 from 16 October, and a refused application will still cost $10.62. An I-94 arrival record at a land border costs $30; airports charge nothing for it.

An ESTA usually lasts two years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first, and allows visits of up to 90 days. You need a chip passport, and every child needs a separate approval.

Third-party sites have no link to the US government and do not speed anything up, CBP says.

Some travellers cannot use ESTA at all. You need a visa if you have been to Cuba since 12 January 2021, or to Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen since 1 March 2011, with narrow exceptions for official and military trips. Dual nationals of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Syria are excluded too. Romania is not in the programme: its designation was rescinded on 2 May 2025, before it took effect.

The visa integrity fee

HR-1 also created a visa integrity fee of at least $250, due when a nonimmigrant visa is issued, on top of the $185 application fee for a tourist visa. The law bars waivers. DHS may refund it after the visa expires if you kept to its conditions and left within five days of your authorised stay ending.

Whether anyone is paying it yet is unclear, and the sources disagree. USCIS said in July 2025 that the fee "requires cross-agency coordination" and would be implemented "in a future publication." We found no such notice in the Federal Register, and on 12 October the State Department's fee page listed only the existing visa fees. Boston University's international office wrote in May that some applicants reported consulates charging it. We could not confirm that with the State Department. ESTA travellers do not pay it.

REAL ID for domestic flights

Since 7 May 2025, TSA accepts a state driver's licence or ID only if it is REAL ID compliant (usually marked with a star) or an enhanced licence. A passport also works, foreign ones included. Children under 18 need no ID on domestic flights.

Adults with no acceptable ID can pay $45 for TSA ConfirmID, available since 1 February 2026. It covers 10 days of travel but does not guarantee you get through.

Restrictions in force

A presidential proclamation in force since 1 January 2026 fully suspends visas for nationals of 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran and Syria, and for holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents. Nineteen more, among them Cuba, Nigeria and Venezuela, face partial suspensions covering tourist, student and immigrant visas, and Turkmenistan's nationals cannot get immigrant visas. Dual nationals can apply on a passport that is not covered.

Canada says its citizens on Canadian passports are not affected. It also notes that foreign nationals staying longer than 30 days must be registered with the US government, and suggests checking your I-94 record to confirm you were registered on entry. That record matters more now that CBP has said, in October, it will stop routinely stamping passports at primary inspection.

Still pending

CBP proposed in December 2025 to make five years of social media history a mandatory part of the ESTA form. It has not been finalised. In May a CBP official told Skift the agency was revising the plan and might ask extra questions only of "certain populations" based on risk.