The Cheapest Way Into America Nearly Doubled in a Year

For citizens of the 40-odd Visa Waiver Program countries, ESTA has always been the frictionless option: an online form, a card payment, and no consular appointment. The price of that convenience has changed sharply. The application fee for B-1/B-2 travel under the programme rose from $21 to $40 when US Customs and Border Protection began collecting fees enacted by the budget reconciliation bill (H.R.1) on 30 September. A routine inflation adjustment then nudged it to $40.27 on 1 January 2026.

Two different mechanisms are at work, and it is worth separating them. The jump from $21 to $40 was legislative — a deliberate policy decision embedded in a budget bill, alongside new fee structures for EVUS and land-border I-94 forms. The move to $40.27 was statutory housekeeping, an annual cost-of-living adjustment provided for in law. The first kind can happen again at any time Congress decides; the second is predictable and small. Conflating them makes the trend look steeper than it is.

Even so, the direction of US entry costs in 2026 is unambiguous. A separate $250 visa integrity fee applies to various non-immigrant visa categories, and H-1B and L-1 extension petitions became more expensive for employers from 9 September, with an additional $4,000 on H-1B renewals and $4,500 on L-1 extensions. Set against those figures, $40.27 for a two-year ESTA authorisation covering multiple entries remains genuinely cheap — roughly $20 a year for the right to turn up.

Two practical warnings. First, apply through the official CBP site; the fee increase has made third-party sites that charge a markup on top of the government fee considerably more profitable, and they proliferate accordingly. Second, apply early rather than at the airport. ESTA approval is usually near-instant but is not guaranteed to be, and an authorisation still tied to an expired passport is one of the most common reasons travellers are turned away at check-in.

Sources: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Fragomen