## Consular Cost of Service Study Data Set (FY2010 Figures) : Nonimmigrant Visa Fees

N on

- petition

- based Nonimmigrant V isas (except E category)

and B order C rossing C ards H, L, O, P, Q or R V isas (petition

- based categories)

Direct Trace Assigned Allocated Total Direct

Trace Assigned Allocated Total

Provide Information Services to

Potential Applicants $107,852,048 $107,852,048 $9,148,293 $9,148,293

Visa Enrollment & Processing $115,993,867 $91,987,742 $207,981,609 $ 10,346,190 $8,506,613 $18,852,803

Visa Adjudication $132,352,708 $132,352,708 $3,090,276 $3,090,276

Visa Production/Post

- Issuance $1,632,174 $28,126,291 $29,758,465 $135,913 $2,471,162 $2,607,076

Overseas Management $41,125,604 $41,125,604 $4,636,460 $4,636,460

Overseas Cashiering/Internal

Controls $12,246,515 $12,246,515 $1,445,793 $1,445,793

Fraud Prevention & Detection $34,488,015 $34,488,015 $4,167,746 $4,167,746

Public Affairs $843,959 $843,959 $75,490 $75,490

Consular Affairs Management $4,257,210 $4,257,210 $2,292,344 $2,292,344

Systems Support $27,421,483 $27,421,483 $8,440,490 $8,440,490

Other Bureau Support

Functional Bureau s $28,482,736 $124,377,939 $152,860,675 $7,158,970 $11,183,789 $18,342,759

Regional Bureaus $24,884,385 $34,062,472 $58,946,857 $2,225,854 $3,046,813 $5,272,667

Support Bureaus $41,790,045 $41,790,045 $3,738,028 $3,738,028

IC ASS $32,469,800 $32,469,800 $2,904,352 $2,904,352

Total $117,626,041 $534,068,696 $232,700,255 $884,394,991 $10,482,103 $53,659,490 $20,872,982 $85,014,576

Number of Applications Anticipated

in FY2010 6,458,90 6 573,789

Unit Cost (note: does not include

Wilberforce surcharge or GSS start

- up

costs) $136.93 $148.16

Fee $140 $150

E Visa s (treaty

- trader or treaty

- investor) K Visa s (fiancé(e)s and certain spouses of U.S. citizens)

Direct Trace Assigned Allocated Total Direct

Trace Assigned Allocated Total

Provide Information Services to

Potential Applicants $1,318,458 $1,318,458 $3,131,968 $3,131,968

Visa Enrollment & Pro cessing $1,410,274 $4,436,411 $5,846,685 $3,781,697 $7,280,593 $11,062,291

Visa Adjudication $1,730,955 $1,730,955 $1,760,865 $1,760,865

Visa Production/Post

- Issuance $19,329 $313,531 $332,860 $146,248 $619,150 $765,398Overs eas Management $808,040 $808,040 $1,547,689 $1,547,689

Overseas Cashiering/Internal

Controls $278,320 $278,320 $487,211 $487,211

Fraud Prevention & Detection $609,833 $609,833 $2,903,647 $2,903,647

Public Affairs $ 10,290 $10,290 $25,210 $25,210

Consular Affairs Management $659,925 $659,925 $762,689 $762,689

Systems Support $2,246,205 $2,246,205 $2,774,541 $2,774,541

Other Bureau Support

Functional Bureaus $406,818 $1,631,047 $2,037,864 $996,703 $3,971,732 $4,968,435

Regional Bureaus $303,403 $415,307 $718,710 $743,337 $1,017,501 $1,760,839

Support Bureaus $509,525 $509,525 $0 $1,248,337 $1,248,337

ICASS $395,888 $395,888 $ 0 $969,926 $969,926

Total $1,429,604 $13,122,187 $2,951,767 $17,503,558 $3,927,945 $23,033,604 $7,207,496 $34,169,046

Number of Applications Anticipated

in FY2010 44,814 98,077

Unit Cost (note: does not inclu de

Wilberforce surcharge or GSS start

- up

costs) $390.58 $348.39

Fee $390 $350

Provide Information Services to Potential Applicants Assigned costs include the cost of staff time needed to conduct overseas outreach associa ted with

nonimmigrant visas (NIVs) , including: publishing information about NIVs on individual embassy/consulate websites; providing "Ask the Consul" programs aimed to

better inform applicants; conducting outreach campaigns about changes to visa requiremen ts or application procedures; and res ponding to public inquiries

. Visa Enrollment & Processing Direct trace costs include the fees charged by the FBI to the Department of State to conduct fingerprint checks and name checks.

Assigned costs include the cost of overseas and domestic staff time needed to perform intake of nonimmigrant visa applications, manage appointment systems an d

schedules, collect applicant biometrics, and run initial reviews of facial recognition results, preparing applicant informati on for review and adjudication by an officer.

Visa Adjudication Assigned costs include the cost of overseas Foreign Service Officer time dedicated to determining whether an applicant may be issued a

particular visa, including: verifying applicant biometrics , determin ing if applicant qualifie s for a particular visa class, and determin ing if there are any ineligibilities that

prevent issuance of the visa to a particular applicant. As a rule, this includes the time spent conducting in

- person interviews of thes e applicants. This line item also

includes the costs of officers preparing requests for security advisory opinions (SAOs) and legal advisory opinions (AOs) if required. In the case of petition

- based

applicants, it also includes the costs of activities th at are not required for non

- petition cases, such as receiving petition information from DHS, conducting reviews of

government and commercial databases to confirm the existence of the petitioning business, and entering that data into the Pet ition Informatio n Management

Service (PIMS) database.

Visa Production/Post

- Issuance Direct trace costs include the costs of blank visa foils and border crossing card material s. Assigned costs include the cost of staff time

(primarily overseas) needed to print nonimmigrant visas, perform quality assurance checks on issued visas, return visas to applicants, and archive the actual visa

application forms.

Overseas Management Assigned costs include the cost of overseas staff time needed to oversee consular staff, facilities, and budgets. As an example, the Bureau of

Consular Affairs employs close to 5

, 700 staff around the world, including more than 3600 locally engaged staff who work at embassies and consulates overseas. Th is

line item includes the cost of the time spent by overseas supervisors in managing, mentoring, and evaluating those staff.

Overseas Cashiering/Internal Controls Assigned costs include the cost of staff time required to collect NIV fees, to oversee cashiering

, to perform required

reconciliation of fee co llection against services provided, and to perform internal controls ensuring accountable items (such as blank visa foils) ar e properly stored,

used and destroyed.Fraud Prevention & Detection Assigned costs include the costs of domestic and overseas sta ff time: training consular staff on general fraud prevention and detection;

conducting inquiries and investigations of suspected fraud; developing, testing and implementing new fraud detection tools an d techniques (at headquarters);

training foreign immigr ation officials about U.S. documents to prevent the use or forged or altered documents; and performing audits to ensure inter nal controls and

reconciliation of controlled supplies have been performed.

Public Affairs Assigned costs include the cost of dome stic Consular Affairs staff time needed for conducting outreach associated with nonimmigrant visas, including

publishing information about NIVs on travel.state.gov , an d producing written pamphlets intended to combat human trafficking and inform temporary work ers about

their rights

. Consular Affairs Management Assigned costs include the cost of domestic Consular Affairs Executive Directorate s taff time dedicated to issues including staff,

facilities, and budget s for overseas consular sections

. Annually, t his office conducts an analysis of staffing needs and workload at overseas consular sections,

identifying posts that have excess positions or require additional positions and reducing or increasing staff as required. T his office also performs functions including :

assigns officer s to consular positions ; evaluates requests for consular fee funding and allots the approved funding; ships controlled items to overseas posts; and

oversees human resources servi ces for consular agents

. Systems Support Assigned costs include the cost of Gover nment employee and contractor time needed to develop and maintain the hardware and software used

by consular staff to adjudicate and produce nonimmigrant visas. This includes the systems that allow us to conduct namecheck s, fingerprint checks and facial

r ecognition checks of visa applicants. Systems support also includes the cost of making visa data available to other U.S. Government agencies to ensure that, for

instance, D epartment of H omeland S ecurity inspectors have access to electronic records and do n ot have to rely solely on the physical visa. This line item also

includes the cost of training staff to use these systems and providing help desk assistance

. Other Bureau Support (Functional, Regional & Support Bureaus)

Functional Bur eaus: Diplomatic Security, Resource Management, Information Resource Management, Foreign Service Institute, Intelligence and Resear ch, Human

Resources, and Administration. Assigned costs include the rents the Bureau of Administration pays on CA's behalf a t the Kentucky Consular Center and National Visa

Center, as well as consular fee revenues allotted to specific activities, such as consular training performed by FSI. Allocated costs include a share of all other costs of

these bureaus representing the staf f time those bureaus spend supporting consular activities.

Regional Bureaus: African Affairs, East Asian & Pacific Affairs, European & Eurasian Affairs, Near Eastern Affairs, South & Central Asian Affai rs , and Western Hemisphere

Affairs

. Assigned costs in clude consular fee revenues allotted to specific posts to support specified local costs, such as printing, supplies, or bank fees for offsite fee

collection arrangements. Allocated costs include a share of all other costs of these bureaus representing the staff time those bureaus spend supporting consular

activities.

Support Bureaus: Overseas Building Operations, Legislative Affairs, Public Affairs, the Office of the Legal Adviser, the Office of Medical Ser vices, the Office of the

Undersecretary for Manage ment, and the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Allocated costs include a share of the costs of these bureaus representing

the staff time those bureaus spend supporting consular activities.

ICASS Allocated costs include a portion of the Depa rtment of State's overall ICASS costs. The International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS)

system is the means by which the Department distributes throughout the Department and to other agencies

, the costs of shared administrative suppor t at embassies

and consulates overseas. The Consular Cost of Service Study ( CoSS ) as a whole includes not all Department of State ICASS costs, but rather only the share of those

costs equal to the share of consular “desks” at all embassies and consulates; this line item represents a portion of that smaller amount, which was assigned equally

within the model to all overseas services.

Sources of Dat a:

 For a detailed discussion of how costs were identified and assigned or allocated to specific consular serv ices, see Public Notice 6928 published in the Federal

Register (75 Fed Reg 14111) on March 24, 2010.

 CA gathered data on compensation rates and staff counts to identify total compensation costs, and surveyed CA personnel to determine how much of that

time and / or cost should be assigned to particular activities. To estimate how much time consular staff overseas spend on consular activi ties, the Department

asked consular officers at 200 overseas posts to complete a 98

- question survey. This survey asked Cons ular Affairs personnel to break out the time they spend on

each consular activity they perform during a typical month

– visa interviews, visa adjudication, passport adjudication, performing welfare and whereabouts visits,

responding to judicial assistance requests from American citizens abroad, notarizing documents for American citizens abroad, issuing consular reports of birth

abroad, and so forth. The responses to the survey were then used to develop resource drivers that assign labor costs to activities . To give one example, in the

survey responses, foreign service national (FSN) employees in Mumbai, India, indicated that as a whole they spent 6,586 hours on consular activities in a typical

month, of which 955 hours (14.5% of their time) were spent on p erforming nonimmigrant visa application intake. Total annual compensation for Mumbai FSNs was

$783,988. Based on the percentage calculated above, 14.5% of their compensation, or $113,678, was calculated as the cost of this one activity for this one po st

for this one labor category. Other data gathered for CA included non

- labor costs like supplies, travel, and printing from State’s Global Financial Management System (GFMS) and actual visa

volumes by year by visa type.

 For other bureaus, the CoSS team con sulted with the involved bureaus to determine what lines of their Congressional Budget Justifications covering the year in

question involved support for consular work, and then allocated these costs using various calculations. For instance, the Hu man Reso urces bureau costs were

included in the CoSS and allocated based on the percentage of CA personnel as a share of all State personnel worldwide, Infor mation Resource Management

costs were allocated based on the percentage of CA "desks" overseas as a share o f all State "desks," and Resource Management costs were allocated based

on the percentage of CA budgets as a share of all State budgets.