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The US tourist visa is called B-1/B-2. It is one visa for two kinds of trips, business and pleasure. Getting it is harder than travel forums make it sound, and easier than visa agencies claim when they sell invitation letters and proof-of-income packages. Below is what the visa actually allows, what documents the State Department […]

The DS-260 is the online form for a US immigrant visa. Every applicant who gets a green card through a US consulate - family-based, employment-based, or through the Green Card Lottery - has to file one. The form is long, only in English, and everything in it gets checked against your documents and your answers […]

DS-160 is the online application for a US nonimmigrant visa. Every applicant files a separate form, including infants, whether they are applying for a tourist visa, a student visa, a work visa or a K-1 fiance visa. The State Department estimates the form takes 90 minutes to complete, and that assumes you already have all […]

The Visa Bulletin is a monthly table from the US State Department showing whose place in line for an immigrant visa has come up. For relatives of US citizens and green card holders in the F1-F4 categories, it's the key document in the whole process - an approved I-130 petition can wait years for its […]

Only a US citizen can bring a mother, father, or child to the US on an immediate relative visa, and these visas have no quota backlog. Parents come on an IR-5 visa. Children under 21 come on an IR-2 visa. Both arrive already holding a green card. This article covers who counts as a parent […]

The L-1 visa is intended for the intracompany transfer of executives, managers, and employees with specialized knowledge to a U.S. office or for launching a new office in the United States. L-2 status is issued to the spouse and children of the L-1 holder, and in certain cases spouses may be eligible to obtain work authorization. The article explains who L-1 and L-2 are suitable for, what criteria are typically reviewed, which forms are filed, and how the process works both when applying from outside the United States and when changing status within the U.S.

The E-2 visa allows citizens of treaty countries to operate and develop a business in the USA, provided that the investment and company management criteria are met. This article explains the conditions and logic behind application assessment, who the E-2 visa is suitable for, which forms and documents are typically required, and how the application process works through a U.S. consulate or via a change of status within the USA. The material will be useful for investors, business owners, and family members planning to apply for E-2 status.

If you are already married to a US citizen, your route to America is the CR1 or IR1 spouse visa. The spouse enters as a permanent resident right away, can work from day one, and does not have to wait inside the country for a green card. The trade-off is time. The case goes through […]

The K1 visa is the only US visa made specifically for the fiance or fiancee of a US citizen, so the couple can get married in America. From the outside it looks simple - petition, interview, move, wedding. In practice it takes a year or more, and most denials come not from a "bad application" […]

A US talent visa usually means one of two different paths. O-1 lets you work in the US for the length of a project. EB-1A leads straight to a green card. Both go to people with extraordinary ability, and both are checked against a closed list of criteria, where "a good specialist with ten years […]