Washington, DC - Effective January 1, 2015, the Department of State will adjust the processing fee for the Border Crossing Card (BCC) for Mexican citizens under age 15 whose parent or guardian has or is applying for a BCC. The fee will increase from $16 to $17. The fees for all other consular services will remain the same.

The Department of State is increasing the fee in light of the passage of the Emergency Afghan Allies Extension Act of 2014, which added a $1 surcharge to the fees for Machine Readable Visa (MRV) and BCC application processing.

The Department seeks to recover, as far as possible, the cost of providing consular services through the collection of consular fees. The BCC fee for Mexican citizens under age 15 is statutorily set at $13. The addition of this $1 special immigrant program surcharge, in addition to the existing $1 special immigrant program surcharge and $2 HIV/AIDS/TB/Malaria surcharge, will increase the total fee for this service from $16 to $17.

Because the Special Immigrant Visa Surcharge will sunset on October 4, 2015, two years after the date it was first collected, the BCC fee for minors under the age of 15 will be decreased to $16 at that time. The Emergency Afghan Allies Extension Act of 2014 surcharge will sunset on June 30, 2020, five and a half years after the first collection.

The proposed fee will be published in the Federal Register, and will take effect on January 1, 2015. Because the change to the Schedule of Fees is being published as a Final Rule, there is no public comment period. Agencies may publish Final Rules when their action comes as a result of an act of Congress.

Fee information may also be found on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website, travel.state.gov, and on the websites of U.S. embassies and consulates.