ESTA is $40.27, the visa integrity fee is $250, and 11 national parks now charge foreigners $100 a head. I did the family-of-four math.
A British family of four flying to Las Vegas to see Zion, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon can hand the US government $1,166.08 before they've looked at a single rock. Or $411.08, if they know which card to buy at the first gate. I spent an evening pricing that trip line by line, and the gap between those two numbers is the whole reason this piece exists.
The US has been adding small fees at every door since late 2025. None of them is dramatic on its own. Stacked, they are.
Door one: the ESTA, now with decimals
If your passport is one of the 42 that our visa matrix lists as ESTA-eligible for the US (the UK, France, Germany, Japan and the rest of the Visa Waiver club), you pay for an online authorization before boarding. It was $14 from 2010 and $21 from 2022. On 30 September 2025 it jumped to $40, and on 1 January 2026 it became $40.27, because the 2025 budget law ties it to the consumer price index (+2.7% that year).
Twenty-seven cents is funny. The mechanism isn't: the fee now rises every year without anyone having to announce a hike. Every traveler needs their own ESTA, kids included, so a family of four pays $161.08. We tracked how this whole category of "visa-free, but pay first" forms keeps ratcheting in our ETA and ETIAS piece.
Two smaller doors opened the same day. Chinese visitors with 10-year B1/B2 visas now pay for EVUS enrollment, which was free until September 2025 and is $30.75 since January. And if you're on a visa and cross by land from Canada or Mexico, the I-94 form went from $6 to $30. Arrive by air or sea and there's no I-94 fee.
Door two: the visa, plus a new $250 line
Most of the world doesn't get the ESTA option. In our September 2026 data, 140 passports need a full visa for the US, India and Brazil among them. That means the $185 B1/B2 application fee, paid before the interview and not refunded if you're refused.
On top of that sits the $250 "visa integrity fee" created by the July 2025 budget law. It's charged at visa issuance, so a refused applicant never pays it, and ESTA travelers are exempt entirely. The statute calls $250 a floor and indexes it to inflation. The awkward part: as of late September 2026, the State Department still hadn't announced a firm start date, and immigration trackers like Ellis report most applicants being approved without paying it, with scattered reports of individual posts charging. I'd budget for it anyway. A fee written into law with no expiry date doesn't stay theoretical forever.
There's also a new optional one. From 1 July to 31 December 2026, a $750 fee buys an expedited B1/B2 interview slot within ten business days, at selected posts only.
Door three: the park gate
Since 1 January 2026, non-US residents aged 16 and over pay a $100 surcharge per person, on top of the normal entrance fee, at these 11:
- Acadia
- Bryce Canyon
- Everglades
- Glacier
- Grand Canyon
- Grand Teton
- Rocky Mountain
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon
- Yellowstone
- Yosemite
- Zion
The alternative is the new America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass at $250, which waives the surcharge and covers the entrance fee for everyone in your private car. US residents pay $80 for the same pass. What counts is residency, proven with something like a state driver's license, so a German nurse living in Denver with a Colorado license gets the $80 pass while her visiting brother doesn't.
The math: a family of four on ESTA
Two adults, a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old, one rental car, Zion, Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. Each park charges $35 per vehicle for seven days.
| Line | Pay at each gate | Buy the $250 pass |
|---|---|---|
| ESTA × 4 | $161.08 | $161.08 |
| Vehicle entry × 3 parks | $105 | covered |
| Surcharge: 3 people aged 16+ × 3 parks | $900 | covered |
| Pass | — | $250 |
| Total | $1,166.08 | $411.08 |
The 13-year-old is the only person in that car the surcharge doesn't touch. The pass saves $755, and nobody at the counter is obliged to point that out.
When the pass breaks even
Per surcharge park, a car costs $35 plus $100 for every passenger aged 16 or over.
A solo traveler pays $135 at one park and $270 at two, so the pass wins from the second park. A couple pays $235 at one park, which is $15 under the pass, until you add any other paid park: Grand Canyon plus Arches ($30) is $265 at the gates. My rule is blunt. If a surcharge park is one of two or more paid parks on your route, buy the pass at the first gate.
A solo visa traveler
Take an Indian passport holder doing the same loop alone. Visa fee $185, integrity fee $250 once it's live, pass $250: $685. A British solo traveler on the identical route pays $40.27 + $250 = $290.27. Add the $750 express interview and the Indian traveler is at $1,435 before a hotel is booked.
What I'd actually do
Go to Moab instead. Arches is $30 per car, Canyonlands $30, Capitol Reef $20, and none of them is on the surcharge list. Arches also dropped timed-entry reservations for 2026, so there's no booking fee and no dawn alarm to beat the window. That's $80 for a carload of any size across three parks, against $250 minimum for the famous trio.
Zion is spectacular. It isn't $300-for-three-adults spectacular when Capitol Reef's Waterpocket Fold costs $20 a car and nobody asks where you live. If the Grand Canyon is non-negotiable (fair), buy the pass and use it everywhere.
And if all you want is a city week in New York, your door fees stop at the ESTA or the visa. Check which one your passport needs in the visa checker before you price anything else.
Passport counts from our 2026-09-24 visa matrix (199 countries). Fees, dates and park rules verified September 2026 against the Federal Register, CBP, NPS and Interior Department releases, and the trackers linked above; visa integrity fee collection status as reported at time of writing. Classification rules on the methodology page.