The Indian Rupee has gained steadily for the past few weeks and on account of this, the U.S. consular exchange rate has been adjusted to INR 55 to one US$ with effect from Tuesday, October 8, 2012. Previously, this was INR 58 to one US$.

This revision in the exchange rate will affect the INR equivalent for all the non-immigrant, immigrant visa and US citizenship services application fees paid on or after October 8, 2012. Effectively, the new non-immigrant visa application fee is and INR 8,800 (equivalent to USD $160 for non-petition based visa categories) and INR 10,450 (equivalent to USD $190 for petition based visa categories).

Applicants who paid the fees prior to October 8, 2012 can use the respective AXIS, Citi or HDFC bank receipts within one year from the date of purchase of the receipts.

These updates can be found on Chennai U.S. Consular website and the ustraveldocs.com/in website.