The 10 Most Expensive Tourist Visas in the World

A tourist visa can cost nothing at all, or it can cost more than the flight. The ten destinations below charge the highest standard fees for a short-stay tourist visa or electronic travel authorization anywhere in the world, from a $435 total in the United States down to a $52 e-visa for Russia.

These are the government's own published fee for the most common route into each country, not a travel agency's markup and not the cost of flights, insurance, or the trip itself. Visa fees are also one of the fastest-changing numbers in travel: several of the entries below moved within the last two years.

The ranking

1. United States - $435

   The B1/B2 tourist visa itself is a $185 application fee. A separate $250 Visa Integrity Fee, added by 2025 budget legislation and collected when the visa is issued, brings the standard total to $435, more than double the next country on this list. Travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries skip all of this and pay $40.27 for an ESTA instead.

2. Ghana - $260

   Ghana's 2026 e-visa platform charges a flat $260 service fee for travelers applying from outside Africa. African passport holders were exempted from the fee entirely when the platform launched, so the charge falls only on non-African visitors.

3. New Zealand - NZD 441 (about $260)

   A standard offshore visitor visa stacks three charges: a NZD 300 application fee, a NZD 41 immigration levy, and a NZD 100 International Visitor Levy, which tripled overnight in October 2024. Together they land New Zealand close to Ghana even though none of the three fees looks dramatic on its own.

4. United Kingdom - £135 (about $170)

   The Standard Visitor visa, valid for up to six months, rose to £135 in April 2026. Nationals who only need the low-cost Electronic Travel Authorisation pay a fraction of that, since the ETA and the full visitor visa are different products for different travelers.

5. Saudi Arabia - SAR 535 (about $142)

   The tourist e-visa bundles a SAR 300 government fee with mandatory medical insurance, bringing the online total to SAR 535. Applying on arrival is marginally cheaper at SAR 480, but most travelers apply online in advance.

6. Canada - CAD 185 (about $135)

   A visitor visa, officially a Temporary Resident Visa, costs CAD 100, plus a mandatory CAD 85 biometrics fee for most applicants. Travelers who only need the online eTA, a different and much cheaper product, pay CAD 7.

7. Australia - AUD 200 (about $130)

   The Visitor visa (subclass 600), tourist stream, rose from AUD 190 to AUD 200 in April 2026 for applications lodged from outside Australia. As with the UK and Canada, this is a separate and pricier product than the low-cost ETA available to eligible passport holders.

8. Schengen Area - EUR 90 (about $97)

   A single short-stay (Type C) visa fee applies across all 27 Schengen states, unchanged since it rose to EUR 90 in June 2024. One visa and one fee cover the whole area, whichever member state's embassy processes the application, whether that's France, Germany, or any other Schengen member.

9. Brazil - $80.90

   Brazil's e-visa costs $80.90 for the nationalities it applies to, including US, Canadian, and Australian passport holders, after those countries lost visa-free access in 2025. The visa is valid for up to 10 years with multiple entries, so it is a one-time cost for a decade of trips.

10. Russia - $52

    The single-entry e-visa costs $52 in consular fees for travelers from any of roughly 60 eligible nationalities, the cheapest true visa fee on this list. It allows a stay of up to 30 days on a visa valid 120 days from issue.

The one that breaks the ranking: Bhutan

Bhutan's tourist visa fee is just $40, cheap enough that it would not make this list at all. But every visitor also pays a Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) of $100 per person, per night, on top of accommodation, food, and a licensed guide. Children aged 6 to 12 pay half, and those 5 and under are exempt.

A one-week trip racks up $700 in SDF alone, more than every other visa fee on this list combined. It is the clearest example here of a gap between the sticker price of the visa and what actually shows up on the bill. See Bhutan's visa requirements.

Why these numbers will not stay put

Visa fees are not fixed prices. The US total jumped by more than 100 percent in a single year once the Visa Integrity Fee was added by budget legislation rather than a State Department decision. New Zealand's International Visitor Levy tripled overnight in 2024. Saudi Arabia folds mandatory insurance into its e-visa fee instead of billing it separately. And most of the figures above are the standard rate: many countries charge different amounts to different nationalities under reciprocity rules, so what one passport pays for a given e-visa can differ from what another pays for the exact same product.

Figures here are the official government-published rate as of July 2026, converted to US dollars at a rough exchange rate wherever the fee is charged in another currency; treat the local-currency figure as the accurate one and the dollar figure as a rough guide. For a growing number of destinations, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, DoINeedVisa surfaces the official fee directly on the pair page for your own passport, sourced and dated the same way as the visa requirement itself.

None of this changes whether you need a visa in the first place. Check your passport against any destination on DoINeedVisa for the requirement, the permitted stay, and, where we track it, the fee.