Temporary Visas Overview

Three Key Principles You Must Understand

There are Three Key Principles which you should fully understand before you attempt to apply for a US visa and/or before you attempt to make your first temporary visit to the US.

The First Principle to know is that US immigration law presumes that all foreign persons seeking to enter United States are "intending immigrants" who are planning to reside in United States permanently. Therefore on the opposite side of this equation, all foreign individuals seeking to enter United States for a temporary period of time must establish to the satisfaction of the U.S. Government that:

(1) they have a specific and legitimate temporary purpose for seeking entry into the United States;

(2) as soon as they accomplish their temporary mission, they will voluntarily depart the US and return to their permanent residence abroad.

The Second Principle is that all foreign persons seeking to enter the United States for a temporary purpose must present to a U.S. Immigration Inspector at the US border a valid passport containing a valid U.S. Non Immigrant Visa.

There are only two limited exceptions to this Second Principle: (1) citizens of Canada may apply for admission to United States without a visa pursuant to the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), and (2) citizens of certain specified countries (Click here for a list) may enter United States for temporary business ("WB") or pleasure ("WT") purposes without a visa for up to 90 days under program referred to as the Visa Waiver Program. Importantly, however, Visa Waiver program applicants who are admitted in to the US are not permitted to change to another visa status without leaving the US, and they may not extend their status beyond the initial 90 day admission period. Additionally, It must be understood that should an US Immigration Inspector conclude that a Visa Waiver applicant is not eligible for admission into the United States during the inspection process, that decision is final and is not appealable. With that decision, the refused Visa Waiver applicant will be ordered to return to his/her home country on the next immediately available flight regardless of particular individual circumstances which would clearly render this outcome excessively harsh. Because of these limitations, many foreign individuals from countries that are eligible under the VWP will notwithstanding apply for temporary non immigrant visitors visas in order to maintain maximum flexibility and consideration during their trips to the US.

The Third Principle to keep in mind is that there are more than twenty very specific and different non immigrant visa categories existing under the U.S. immigration laws, and, that each foreign person seeking entry into the U.S. for a temporary mission must obtain and present the correct visa type for his/her intended purpose. These Non Immigrant Visa categories breakdown roughly into two groupings: Employment Related and Non-Employment Related.