B-1 Business Visitors
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B-1 Business Visitors PDF Print E-mail
B-1 Visa is Suitable For:

  • Participants to attend scientific, educational, professional, business, or religious conventions
  • Persons to work on specific projects in the U.S. and paid by a foreign employer
  • Business professionals to participate in commercial transactions (which do not involve gainful employment) such as negotiating contracts and consulting with business associates

  • Persons to undertake independent studies such as feasibility studies, market research or any such activity
  • Persons to attend professional or business conferences, workshops, or seminars
  • Business professionals to explore possibilities to set up a subsidiary of a foreign corporation, or to make investments
  • Personal or domestic servants to come to the U.S. with a U.S. citizen or nonimmigrant employer on B, E, F, H, I, J, L, M, O, P, R, or TN status
  • Technical personnel to install or service equipment pursuant to a contract of sale, or to provide after sales service
  • Business professionals to attend meetings as a member of the Board of Directors of a U.S. corporation
  • Persons to observe business, professional, or vocational activity as long as it does not involve any hands-on activity
  • Professional athletes to compete for tournament money and not for a salary
  • Professionals to conduct business consultations with business associates in the U.S.
  • Purchasing agents of a foreign employer to come to the U.S. to procure goods, components, or raw materials for use outside the U.S.
  • Foreign business persons coming to the U.S. in conjunction with Litigation
  • Persons rendering professional services in the U.S. that would otherwise qualify them for an H-1B visa, but who are paid for those services by a source outside the U.S.
  • Persons employed outside the U.S. who are paid from abroad, and who come to the U.S. to undertake an established training program that would qualify them for an H-3 visa
  • Employees of foreign airlines who are engaged in productive employment in the U.S. and paid in the U.S. who are not eligible for E-1 treaty trader status
  • Other persons such as for bona fide religious missionaries and crew members on yachts
  • Special situations involving Canadians and Mexicans such as Canadian truck drivers who are paid by either Canadian or U.S. firms and who transport commodities across the Canadian Border
  • Foreign companies to send their personnel to the U.S. to install or service equipment pursuant to a contract of sale or to provide after sales service
  • U.S. companies to bring foreign business consultants for training or expert advice
  • U.S. universities to bring foreign guest speakers or lecturers