B-1 Visa

The type of visa to be applied for by an individual will depend on the purpose of his/her intended travel. This purpose, when mapped to the immigration laws of U.S., will determine what type of visa will be required by the applicant to travel to the United States.

The United States is considered as the ‘land of opportunities’. No wonder, travelers always look for a chance to enter this country for enhancing their business. However, in order to enter U.S. for business purposes, a business visa is required. The business visa falls under the category of non-immigrant visas and is considered the best type of visa to visit the country on a temporary basis and promote your business into the desired area, under this visa status.

There can be two key groupings of applicants traveling to the United States on a business visa:

• Businessman or Investor
  Either a businessman seeking to survey potential areas or sites for expanding his/her business or an investor wanting to invest in a business or lease business premises in the country could be classified as the first key grouping for a business visa.
• Independent Researchers
  Researchers involved in independent research activities and receive no income from any U.S. based entity.
• Sellers and Service Engineers
  Sellers selling, exhibiting or signing contracts for products which are produced by a non-U.S. company or service engineers servicing or repairing equipments which were sold by a company based in a country other than the United States.
• Conference/Meetings or Lectures/Training
  The individuals traveling to the United States on a business visa to attend a conference or a meeting or to deliver lecture or training should strictly restrain themselves to their purpose of visit. They should not receive any kind of salary from a U.S. based company for doing so.

Applicants belonging to all the above groupings are not allowed to stay in the U.S. beyond the approved visa period or the time schedule of their event. Moreover, at any point in time, the business visa visitor to the United States must receive no salary from any source (a U.S. based company or entity) in the United States.

If an individual fits well into the above criterion (for the purpose of his/her travel), he/she must go ahead and apply for a B-1 visa.

Contact us to know about the eligibility, requirements, and process of applying for a Business visa.

Eligibility

When applying for any type of temporary visa to the United States, it is very important to make a strong case of application as the U.S. law views each visa applicant as an immigrant to U.S., unless proved otherwise. A few standard eligibility criteria need to be met in order to obtain a business visa:

• The applicant must prove that the purpose of their intended trip to U.S. is only for business purposes (limited to the key groupings mentioned above).
• The applicant must provide evidence that he/she has strong ties in India (such as a house and family).
• It is absolutely necessary to prove that the applicant will return to India on completion of his/her trip.
• Evidences to prove that the applicant has enough funds to cover his/her expenses of the trip as well as the temporary stay during the trip.
• The applicant must be free from any character-related concerns such as guilty of any crimes or charges in the past.

Photo Requirements

Uploading a photograph along with the online application is a crucial step in the visa application process. However, at any point in time, the acceptance or rejection of your photograph will be at the sole discretion of the U.S. Embassy or Consulate, where you apply.

The following criteria must be followed while uploading a photograph:

• The photograph should be a recent one, preferably clicked by a professional visa photo service. It must be taken wearing normal clothes.
• The photograph must not have a neutral expression on the face of the applicant.
• It must be taken against a light colored, plain background such as white or off-white.
• It must depict the front view of the applicant’s face (22 mm and 35 mm) having 50-69 % of the total image’s height from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin.
• The applicants head must not be covered with any kind of clothing (unless covered for a religious reason) or hats/caps or any electronic devices such as headphones or Bluetooth headset.
• Glasses can be worn, provided they are not dark or tinted. In addition to this, the photographs of applicants with glasses may not be accepted, in case the glasses produce a glare in the photograph.

Visa Application Process

The application process is divided into four simple steps which have been explained below:

• Submit an Application
  The application for a B-1 non-immigrant visa needs to be filled and submitted online. This involves filling up the DS-160 form. The online application also requires uploading his/her photograph by the applicant. Once the application has been submitted, a confirmation page will appear. This needs to be printed to be carried at the time of the visa interview.
• Schedule an Interview
  Once the online form has been successfully submitted, what follows next is scheduling an appointment for the visa interview. Applicants belonging to certain age groups do not require answering an interview. The applicants of age 13 years or younger and 80 years of age and above do not require appearing for an interview. However, this is solely at the discretion of the Consulate office. In order to schedule an interview, the candidate must apply at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate located in his/her own country.
• Prepare for the Interview
  This phase involves preparing for the visa interview questions. A few of the U.S. Embassies or Consulates require the candidate to pay the visa fees before the interview, while some require the candidate to pay the fees at the time of the interview. In addition to this, a visa issuance fee is applicable to citizens of certain countries.
• Collection of Documents
  This phase also demands that the applicant keeps all the required documents at hand.
  Documents Checklist
  The documents list is as stated below:
  – Confirmation Receipt of the Form DS-160
  The candidate must carry the confirmation form page which he/she obtains on filling the online DS-160 form.
  – Passport of the Applicant
  The passport must have the validity of at least six months from beyond the period of stay in the United States. If a particular passport has more than one individual listed in it, a separate application for each of the individual must be submitted.
  – Photograph of the Applicant
  Although the online application requires a photograph of the applicant to be uploaded, it is always safe to carry a hard copy of the photograph at the time of interview. This is helpful if the photograph has not been uploaded properly at the time of online form submission.
  – Fee Receipt (if applicable)
  As mentioned earlier, some of the U.S. Embassies or Consulates demand that the application fee be paid before the interview takes place. In such scenarios, the applicant must carry with him/her the receipt of the fees paid after the submission of the online form.

Once the above process has been completed, the U.S. Embassy or Consulate may ask the applicant to submit additional documents including the evidence of the purpose of visit, funds to support stay in the United States, and the proof that the applicant will depart U.S. after the trip. If demanded, these documents will be required for the further processing of the visa application.

Notes

– B-1 visa is a non-immigrant type of visa which doesn’t allow its holder to settle down in the United States.

– The issued visa will be valid for travel to the United States irrespective of whether the passport has expired or not. In case the passport has expired, the visa holder must carry the old (containing the issued visa) as well as a new passport at the time of travel.