Visa Fees

Each U. S. citizen going to France this summer will save $8--the price of three good dinners or 33 martini cocktails--through an agreement signed last week by the U. S. State Department and representatives of the French Government. Reciprocally, the price of French and U. S. visas has been reduced from $10 to $2.

The $10 visa fee, bane of U. S. travelers abroad, started in 1920 when U. S. consuls were instructed to collect $9, plus $1 for executing the application, from each and every foreigner who wanted a passport visaed. Delighted at finding a new source of revenue, several foreign governments instantly retaliated, charged all U. S. tourists $10 each.

Finding that U. S. citizens were spending millions on foreign visas -- while little money was accruing from foreign tourists in the U. S. -- the State Department started negotiations in 1925 to abolish or reduce the $10 charge. France last week was the 29th nation to comply.

Among the nations granting free visas to U. S. citizens: Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Esthonia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Russia.

Charging $1 to $4: France, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Austria, Chile, Spain.

The Turkish Republic holds out for $6 ; while still in the $10 class are: Norway, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Greece, Great Britain, Irish Free State.

Last week the London Evening Stand ard commented on the French reduction of visa fees : "France has so many advantages over Britain for the attraction of Americans that we can ill afford to put any obstacles in the way of the potential visitor. There is a tendency on this side of the Channel to imagine that all American travelers are so rich that a few extra dollars in the way of fees will not weigh one way or another. That is quite wrong."