‎B-1 Business Visa

Who needs a B-1 Business Visa to enter the United States?

If you are interested in visiting the United States, you will need a tourist visa to the United States, although depending on your country of origin, purpose or duration of your trip, you will have to process one type of visa or another.

Knowing which visa you need to enter the US can be somewhat confusing, since although B-1 Business Visa is the most common to access the United States, it is only a small part of the rest of the types of visas for United States.

What is the B-1 Business Visa?

The B-1 Business Visa allows you to enter the United States for a specific period that ranges from 6 months to a year.

The duration of the B-1 Business Visa  depends in each case, on the needs of the applicant, and allows foreign citizens to participate in business activities in the US (meetings, conventions, congresses, negotiations, purchases and sales, selection of workers etc.), but also participate in exams or professional sports activities.

In short, the B-1 Business Visa  is used to travel to the United States for business or professional reasons.

The most common tourist visas are the B-2 Business Visa and the ESTA travel authorization for the United States, and it is important to know the differences between them to request the one that best suits your needs.

The main difference between the B-1 Business Visa and the ESTA is the duration, since while the B-1 Business Visa  is valid for 6 to 12 months, the ESTA allows stays of 90 days in the US, and is valid for two years.

If you still do not know what the ESTA is, it is the visa-exempt travel authorization, which affects travelers from 39 countries, including Spain and Chile.

The process to apply for the ESTA is much faster than the process used to get the B-1 Business Visa, and with this visa you can also visit the United States for professional purposes, just like the B-1 Business Visa.

The duration of the trip and the ESTA eligibility will be decisive to know if you need a B-1 Business Visa to enter the USA or the ESTA.

On the other hand, the difference between the B-1 and B-2 Business Visa is in the purpose of the trip: the B-2 visa allows you to visit the United States as a tourist, with a temporary non-immigrant visa; and it cannot be requested if the trip has professional objectives.

In any case, the requirements of B-1 and B-2 are exactly the same, the purpose or usefulness of the visa changes (for business or tourism), but the requirements to apply for said visas are identical and just as different compared to the eligibility requirements of the USCIS.

How to apply for the B-1 Business Visa to travel to the United States

Applying for the B-1 Business Visa takes time, so it is recommended that you start the application as soon as you decide on your business trip to the USA.

You have to request it 60 days in advance (90 if you are dedicated to the world of science), since among the requirements of the B1 visa, a face-to-face interview at the US embassy or consulate stands out, and the waiting times They are long.

It is important that the B-1 Business Visa applicant provides the interview with all the necessary documentation to justify the purpose of their trip, in addition to the return ticket to prove that they will not stay in the US.

Those citizens who are part of the ESTA and who have been denied entry authorization after their application, will be able to complete the B-1 and B-2 visa procedures (depending on the one that suits them) in order to continue processing their entry into the United States

COMMON QUESTIONS

What is the B-1 Business Visa ?

Every citizen traveling to the United States needs a visa. ... In summary, the American B1/B2 visa is one that allows Brazilian citizens to visit the United States for leisure or business, for a specified period.

What is a business visa?

The American Business Visa is for travelers to participate in events related to their work here in Brazil, such as meetings, lectures, workshops, fairs, specific events, among others.