Overview

The B-1/B-2 visitor visa is for people traveling to the United States temporarily for business (B-1) or for pleasure or medical treatment (B-2). Generally, the B-1 visa is for travelers consulting with business associates, attending scientific, educational, professional or business conventions/conferences, settling an estate or negotiating contracts. The B-2 visa is for travel that is recreational in nature, including tourism, visits with friends or relatives, medical treatment and activities of a fraternal, social or service nature. Often, the B-1 and B-2 visas are combined and issued as one visa: the B-1/B-2.

Qualifications

If you apply for a B-1/B-2 visa, you must demonstrate to a consular officer that you qualify for a U.S. visa in accordance with the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 214(b) of the INA presumes that every B-1/B-2 applicant is an intending immigrant. You must overcome this legal presumption by showing:-

  • That the purpose of your trip to the United States is for a temporary visit, such as business, pleasure, or medical treatment
  • That you plan to remain in the United States for a specific, limited period of time
  • Evidence of funds to cover your expenses while in the United States
  • That you have a residence outside the United States, as well as other binding social or economic ties, that will ensure your return abroad at the end of your visit

Work Visa

Overview

If you want to work in the U.S. temporarily as a nonimmigrant, under U.S. immigration law, you need a specific visa based on the type of work you will be doing. Most temporary worker categories require that your prospective employer or agent file a petition, which must be approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the United States before you can apply for a work visa.

H-1B (specialty occupation)

An H-1B visa is required if you are coming to the United States to perform services in a pre-arranged professional job. To qualify, you must hold a bachelor’s or higher degree (or an equivalent degree) in the specific specialty for which you seek employment. USCIS will determine whether your employment constitutes a specialty occupation and whether you are qualified to perform the services. Your employer is required file a labor condition application with the Department of Labor concerning the terms and conditions of its contract of employment with you.

H-2A (Seasonal agricultural workers)

An H-2A visa allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs for which U.S. workers are not available. An H-2A nonimmigrant classification applies to you if you seek to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature in the United States on a temporary basis. A U.S. employer (or an association of U.S. agricultural producers named as a joint employer) must file a Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, on your behalf.

H-2B visa (Skilled and unskilled workers)

This visa is required if you are coming to the United States to perform a job which is temporary or seasonal in nature and for which there is a shortage of U.S. workers. Your employer is required to obtain a Department of Labor certification confirming that there are no qualified U.S. workers eligible for the type of employment on which your petition is based.

H-3  (Trainee)

An H-3 visa is required if you are coming to the United States to receive training from an employer in any field of endeavor, other than graduate education or training, for a period of up to two years. You can be paid for your training and “hands-on” work is authorized. Training cannot be used to provide productive employment and cannot be available in your home country.

H-4  (Dependents)

If you are the principal holder of a valid H visa, your spouse or unmarried children (under age 21) may receive an H-4 visa to accompany you to the United States. However, your spouse/children are not permitted to work while in the United States.

L-1  (Intra-company transferees)

An L-1 visa is required if you are the employee of an international company which is temporarily transferring you to a parent branch, affiliate, or subsidiary of the same company in the United States. The international company may be either a U.S. or foreign organization. To qualify for an L-1 visa, you must be at the managerial or executive level, or have specialized knowledge and be destined to a position within the U.S. company at either of these levels, although not necessarily in the same position as held previously. In addition, you must have been employed outside the United States with the international company continuously for one year within the three years preceding your application for admission into the United States. You may only apply for an L-1 visa after your U.S. company or affiliate has received an approved petition from USCIS, either on a “blanket” or individual basis.

L-2  (Dependents)

If you are the principal holder of a valid L visa, your spouse or unmarried children (under age 21) may receive this derivative visa. Due to a recent change in the law, your spouse may seek employment authorization. Your spouse must enter the United States on his or her own L-2 visa and then submit a completed Form I-765 (obtainable from USCIS), along with an application fee. Your children are not authorized to work in the United States.

“O” class visa (for Sciences, Arts, Education, Business and Athletics)

Class O visas are issued to people with extraordinary ability in the Sciences, Arts, Education, Business and Athletics or extraordinary achievement in motion picture and television production, and their essential support personnel.

“P” class visa (for Artist & Entertainers etc.)

Class P visas are issued to certain athletes, entertainers, artists and essential support personnel who are coming to perform in the United States.

“Q” class visa (for international cultural exchange program)

Class Q visa is required if you are traveling to the United States to participate in an international cultural exchange program for the purpose of providing practical training, employment and the sharing of the history, culture, and traditions of your home country. You must have a petition filed on your behalf by the program sponsor and the petition must be approved by USCIS.

Student Visa Overview

The United States welcomes foreign citizens who come to the United States to study. Before applying for a visa, all student visa applicants are required to be accepted and approved by their school or program.

Once accepted, educational institutions will provide each applicant the necessary approval documentation to be submitted when applying for a student visa.

Visa Descriptions and Qualifications

F-1 Visa

This is the most common type of student visa. If you wish to engage in academic studies in the United States at an approved school, such as an accredited U.S. college or university, private secondary school, or approved English language program then you need an F-1 visa. You will also need an F-1 visa if your course of study is more than 18 hours a week.

M-1 Visa

If you plan engage in non-academic or vocational study or training at a U.S. institution then you need an M-1 visa. For more information about each of these visas and opportunities for studying in the United States, please contact us.

Dependents

Spouses or unmarried children under the age of 21 who wish to accompany or join the principal visa holder of a J-1 visa to the United States for the duration of his or her stay must have J-2 visas. Spouses or children who do not intend to reside in the United States with the principal visa holder, but who will visit for vacations only, may be eligible to apply for visitor (B-2) visas.

The spouse and/or child of an exchange visitor in the United States may not work while holding a J-2 visa unless they have filed Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) must have reviewed the Form I-765 and given permission to the J-2 holder to work. The USCIS website has a PDF document titled “Employment Authorization” that has more information.

Religious worker Visa

Overview

The R visa type is for individuals seeking to enter the United States to work in a religious capacity on a temporary basis, as defined in The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §101(a)(15)(R).

Qualifications

Religious workers include persons authorized by a recognized entity to conduct religious worship and undertake other duties usually performed by authorized members of the clergy of that religion and workers engaging in a religious occupation. You must meet the following criteria if you seek a religious worker visa:-

  • You must be a member of a religious denomination recognized as a bona fide nonprofit religious organization in the United States.
  • Your religious denomination and its affiliate, if applicable, must be either exempt from taxation or qualify for tax-exempt

You must have been:

  1. A member of your denomination for the two years immediately preceding your application for religious worker status
  2. Planning to work as a minister of your denomination, or in a religious occupation or vocation for a bona fide, nonprofit religious organization (or a tax-exempt affiliate of such an organization)
  3. Residing and physically present outside the United States for the immediate prior year, if you have previously spent five years in this

There is no requirement that you have a residence abroad that you have no intention of abandoning. However, you must intend to depart the United States at the end of your lawful status, absent specific indications or evidence to the contrary.

Journalist & Media persons Visa

Overview

The media (I) visa is a nonimmigrant visa for representatives of the foreign media temporarily traveling to the United States to engage in their profession while having their home office in a foreign country. Some procedures and fees under immigration law relate to policies of the traveler’s home country and, in turn,

the United States follows a similar practice, which we call “reciprocity.” Procedures for providing media visas to foreign media representatives of a particular country consider whether the visa applicant’s own government grants similar privileges, or is reciprocal, to media/press representatives from the United States.

Qualifications

There are very specific requirements, dictated by U.S. immigration law, which must be met by applicants in order to qualify for the media visa. To qualify for the media (I) visa applicants must demonstrate that they are properly qualified to be issued a media visa.

Media visas are for “representatives of the foreign media,” including members of the press, radio, film or print industries, whose activities are essential to the foreign media function, such as reporters, film crews, editors and persons in similar occupations, under U.S. immigration laws, traveling to the United States to engage in their profession. The applicant must be engaging in qualifying activities for a media organization having its home office in a foreign country. The activity must be essentially informational, and generally associated with the news gathering process, reporting on actual current events, to be eligible for the media visa. The consular officer will determine whether or not an activity qualifies for the media visa. Reporting on sports events are usually appropriate for the media visa. Other examples include, but are not limited to the following media related kinds of activities:-

  • Primary employees of foreign information media engaged in filming a news event or documentary
  • Members of the media engaged in the production or distribution of film will only qualify for a media visa if the material being filmed will be used to disseminate information or news. Additionally, the primary source and distribution of funding must be outside the United States
  • Journalists working under contract. Persons holding a credential issued by a professional journalistic organization, if working under contract on a product to be used abroad by an information or cultural medium to disseminate information or news not primarily intended for commercial entertainment or Please note that a valid employment contract is required
  • Employees of independent production companies when those employees hold a credential issued by a professional journalistic association
  • Foreign journalists working for an overseas branch office or subsidiary of a U.S. network, newspaper or other media outlet if the journalist is going to the United States to report on S. events solely for a foreign audience
  • Accredited representatives of tourist bureaus, controlled, operated, or subsidized in whole or in part by a foreign government, who engage primarily in disseminating factual tourist information about that country and who are not entitled to A-2 visa classification
  • Technical industrial Employees in the U.S. offices of organizations, which distribute technical industrial information

Freelance journalists will only be considered for an “I” visa if all of the following criteria are met. The journalist must:-

  • Hold a credential issued by a professional journalistic organization
  • Be under contract to a media organization
  • Disseminate information or news not primarily intended for commercial entertainment or

Still photographers are permitted to enter the United States with B-1 visas for the purpose of taking photographs, provided that they receive no income from a U.S. source.

Restrictions

Citizens from a country participating in the Visa Waiver Program, who want to enter the United States temporarily as representatives of the foreign media while engaging in their profession as media or journalists, must first obtain a media visa to come to the United States. They cannot travel without a visa on the Visa Waiver Program, nor can they travel on a visitor (type B) visa. Attempting to do so may result in a denial of admission to the United States by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and

Border Protection officer at the port of entry. The list below describes situations when a visitor visa or the Visa Waiver Program can be used.

Visitor Visa

A visitor visa may be used if your purpose of travel is for the following activities:

Attending a conference or meeting

Media representatives traveling to the United States to attend conferences or meetings as a participant and who will not report about the meeting, either while in the United States or upon their return, can travel on a visitor visa. The distinction in immigration law is whether they will be “engaging in their vocation.”

Guest speaking, lecturing or engaging in academic activity

Media representatives must hold a visitor visa when traveling to the United States for the purposes of guest speaking, lecturing, or engaging in other usual academic activity at a related or affiliated nonprofit entity, a nonprofit research organization, a governmental research organization, or at an institution of higher education from which the applicant will receive an honorarium. However, the speaking activity must last no longer than nine days at a single institution and the speaker cannot have received payment from more than five institutions or organizations for such activities in the last six months.

Purchasing media equipment

A visitor visa can be used by employees of foreign media outlets to purchase U.S. media equipment or broadcast rights or to take orders for foreign media equipment or broadcast rights, since these activities fall within the scope of those executed by ordinary business visitors.

Traveling with a Temporary Work Visa

While certain activities clearly qualify for the media visa because they are informational and news gathering in content, many do not. Each application is considered within the full context of its particular case. The consular officer focuses on whether the purpose of travel is essentially informational, and whether it is generally associated with the news gathering process, in order to determine if an applicant qualifies for a media visa. The list below describes situations when a temporary worker visa, such as types H, O, or P, are required instead of a type I journalist/media visa.

A temporary work visa may be used if your purpose of travel is for the following activities:

Filming material for commercial entertainment or advertising purposes

A media visa cannot be used by applicants whose purpose of travel to the United States is to film, or work on a film, intended primarily for commercial entertainment or advertising purposes. A temporary worker visa is required.

Production support roles such as proofreaders, librarians and set designers

People involved in associated activities such as proofreaders, librarians, set designers, etc., are not eligible for media visas and may qualify under another classification, such as H, O, or P visas.

Stories that are staged events, television and quiz shows

Stories that involve contrived and staged events, even when unscripted, such as reality television shows and quiz shows, are not primarily informational and do not generally involve journalism. Similarly,

documentaries involving staged recreations with actors are also not considered informational. Members of the team working on such productions will not qualify for media visa. Television, radio, and film production companies may wish to seek expert counsel from an immigration attorney who specializes in media work for specific advice tailored to the current project.

Producing artistic media content

Media representatives who will travel to the U.S. in order to participate in the production of artistic media content (in which actors are used) will not qualify for a media visa. Television, radio, and film production companies may wish to seek expert counsel from an immigration attorney who specializes in media work for specific advice tailored to the current project.

Dependents

Spouses or unmarried children under the age of 21 who wish to accompany or join the principal visa holder in the United States for the duration of his or her stay require derivative I visas. Spouses and/or children who do not intend to reside in the United States with the principal visa holder, but visit for vacations only, may be eligible to apply for visitor (B-2) visas.

Spouses and dependents may not work in the United States on a derivative I visa. If the spouse or dependent seeks employment, the appropriate work visa will be required.