B1 Visa: Temporary Visitors for Business

B-1 visas are issued to temporary visitors for business. B-1 applicants generally may not seek gainful employment in the U.S. and the holder of a B-1 visa may not remain in the United States to manage a business. B-1 visa holders may engage in commercial transactions, which do not involve gainful employment in the United States (such as a merchant who takes orders for goods manufactured abroad); negotiate contracts; consult with business associates; litigate; participate in scientific, educational, professional or business conventions, conferences, or seminars; and  undertake independent research.

The following types of activities are generally acceptable for a B-1 visa holder:

Investor seeking Investment in U.S.: An investor seeking investment in the U.S. including an investment that would qualify him or her for status as an E-2 Investor. Such investor is not allowed to perform productive labor or actively participating in the management of the business prior to being granted E-2 status.

Commercial or Industrial Workers: A person coming to the United States to install, service, or repair commercial or industrial equipment or machinery purchased from a company outside the U. S. or to train U.S. workers to perform such services. However, in such cases, the contract of sale must specifically require the seller to provide such services or training and the visa applicant must possess specialized knowledge essential to the seller’s contractual obligation to perform the services or training and must receive no remuneration from a U.S. source.

Religious activities: Private worship, prayer, meditation, informal (a vocational) religious study, and attendance at religious services or conferences, which do not constitute religious "work" and therefore would not be appropriate for R classification unless the alien has a religious vocation. The applicant, however, may qualify for B-1 or B-2 visa status.

Athletes: Professional athletes, such as golfers and auto racers, who receive no salary or payment other than prize money for his or her participation in a tournament or sporting event. Athletes or team members who seek to enter the United States as members of a foreign based team in order to compete with another sports team.

Musicians: A musician may be issued a B-1 visa, provided if the musician is coming to the United States in order to utilize recording facilities for recording purposes only, the recording will be distributed and sold only outside the United States, and no public performances will be given.

Artists: An artist coming to the United States to paint, sculpt, etc. who is not under contract with a U.S. employer and who does not intend to regularly sell such art-work in the United States.

Entertainers: B visa status is not appropriate for a member of the entertainment profession (professional entertainer) who seeks to enter the U.S. temporarily to perform services. Instead, performers shall be accorded another appropriate visa classification, which in most cases will be P-1 visa, regardless of the amount or source of compensation, whether the services will involve public appearance(s), or whether the performance is for charity.

Medical “elective clerkship”: An alien, who is studying at a foreign medical school and seeks to enter the United States temporarily in order to take an “elective clerkship” at a U.S. medical school’s hospital without remuneration from the hospital. An “elective clerkship” affords practical experience and instructions in the various disciplines of medicine under the supervision and direction of faculty physicians at a U.S. medical school’s hospital as an approved part of the alien’s foreign medical school education.

Requirements

In order to receive temporary visitor status, the law requires that the alien have a residence abroad, which he or she does not intend to abandon. This residence is usually established by showing ties with the applicant’s home country. Such ties may include business, employment, family, property or other connections, tangible or intangible, which satisfy a consular officer that the alien will leave the United States voluntarily after a temporary visit. Applicants need not show that they never intend to immigrate to the United States,  but merely that they have now a residence abroad to which they intend to return.