“All persons who are applying for a business, tourism, or student visa (B1/B2, F1, F2, J1, J2, B1) on or after June 5, 2010 must pay SR532. If they have an appointment on or after June 5, 2010 and you have already paid SR498, you must make an additional payment to SAMBA for an additional SR34 and bring both receipts to your interview,” the announcement said.

The department also said the increase for the Machine Readable Visa (MRV) will ensure sufficient resources to meet the increasing cost of processing non-immigrant visas

“All posts in Saudi Arabia require the online application (DS-160) for all student, tourist, and other nonimmigrant visas. Even if they have already scheduled an appointment for after Feb. 8, you must fill out a new application using the online system,” it added.

In February, the US missions in the Kingdom introduced the online application scheme.

Under this program, the US Embassy in Riyadh and its consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran requested applicants for tourist, student and other nonimmigrant visas to use the new online visa application, Form DS-160.

“The use of the new online application eliminates the need to print an entire application for each traveler and bring it to the Consular Section at the time of the interview,” Consul General Daniel Goodspeed of the US Embassy said.

The online visa form is available at the US State Department website. The interactive form provides Arabic translations for each question so as to assist applicants as they fill out the form.

“Currently over 96 percent of Saudi citizens applying for temporary visit visas are approved and we are able to provide visas to our customers more rapidly than in previous years,” said the statement. “We believe the implementation of the DS-160 will prove to be a user-friendly process that facilitates the travel of people wishing to visit America.”

With the new form, the applicant will be required to upload a visa photograph and to submit the form via the Internet. The applicant will print only a confirmation page upon completion of each Form DS-160. “If applicants arrive for their interviews without this page, they will not be permitted to enter the embassy or consulate for their visa applications.” The other required supporting documents for the applications include visa fee receipt from SAMBA, job letter, bank statement, transcripts, 1-20 and SEVIS receipt.