B Visa - Temporary Business Visitor Visa

When applying for a Temporary B Visa it is critical to state the purpose of your trip. This is probably universally true. If you want to come here a specific purpose, state it. Otherwise, you’d be lying. Lying to the U.S. government is probably not the brightest idea someone had!
 
If you are coming to the U.S. for a business trip or for pleasure, there are different visas.
 
So your cousin, Eduardo, from Columbia frequently visits you to enjoy family time and to stock up on U.S. goods you can’t find in Columbia like the new must have Nikes among other things. Is he here for pleasure or for business?  ​

B-1 VISA - BUSINESS VISITORs

To be considered a Business visitor you have to be here for a real business purpose. Coming here to buy Nike shoes wouldn’t ordinarily be considered a business trip unless Eduardo works for Nike in Columbia and needs to inspect stores, learn from the store management on best practices, etc. Specifically, unless you are consulting with business associates, negotiating a contract, settling an estate, attending a conference, etc. you are not coming to the U.S. for business purposes.
 
Qualification:

You must come here for a legitimate business. Buying 10 pairs of Nikes probably wont be considered business purpose.
  1. The next three qualifications are quite obvious:
    1. The B Visa is a temporary Visa. Guess what? If Eduardo was here on business, he can’t stay forever. The duration of the trip must relate to the business purpose and must be limited.
    2. You have to be able to afford for your trip. How else would you get here?
    3. You have to have life outside of the U.S. Well, not all people do, we guess.
    4. Eduardo can’t be on of those special people who can’t come to the U.S.

B-2 Visitors for Pleasure or Medical Treatment

We established that Eduardo is here for pleasure. He wants the Nike shoes because outside of seeing his family and occasionally going out, he gets pleasure of wearing the hottest Nikes.
 
So what else is considered pleasure? Eduardo wants to go on the free Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, check out U.S. southern most point in Key West or even see Hollywood! Pleasure generally means you want to enjoy yourself outside of work. While some workaholics may get pleasure of working, please apply for the B-1 Visa because the U.S. government doesn’t consider working a pleasure.
 
We attract the best and the brightest. Hence, our doctors and hospitals are among the best in the world. Sometimes, foreigners want to come here to have access to first class medical care that for some odd reason not all of us can enjoy. Not sure why the medical treatment visa falls under pleasure but we are not here to argue that.
 
Eduardo’s dad is sick and there is no help in Colombia for his condition.  There is a specialist here but in order to qualify a local physician in Colombia needs to diagnose him with a condition that requires medical treatment in the U.S. In order to qualify, you also have to have a U.S. physician or medical facility willing to treat him. Unfortunately, you have to bear the cost of all the expenses related to the treatment. Unfortunately, if you can’t estimate the expenses and have someone on the hook for the costs, we can’t give you access to the best care in the world.
 
Qualification:

  1. A repeat session, you cannot misstate your purpose of coming to the U.S. That means, you are here for pleasure or medical treatment only.
  2. A temporary visa is for how long? A limited or specific period of time. Most certainly not permanent.
  3. You can’t be homeless in your home country. Preferably, you are a student in the middle of a degree, have a stable job or the rest of your family is not joining you on the trip. The more “binding ties” you have to home, the greater your chances.
  4. You are welcomed back home, i.e. your home country. The U.S. wants to make sure they can ship you back somewhere.
  5. If you go somewhere for pleasure, you generally saved up some money to afford it. Same goes here.
 
Pleasure or no pleasure, we bucket medical treatment into non-pleasure? Long of the short is. Temporary.