US Visa Types Explained: A Guide to Every Major Category

Every US visa falls into one of two buckets — nonimmigrant (temporary stay) or immigrant (a path to permanent residence, i.e. a green card) — and each specific category inside those buckets is marked with a letter code, like B for visitors or H-1B for specialty-occupation workers. This guide walks through the major categories that cover most travelers, students, workers, and family members, plus a few policy changes from 2025 and 2026 that are worth knowing about before you apply.

What’s the difference between a nonimmigrant visa and an immigrant visa?

A nonimmigrant visa is for a temporary stay with an intended return home, while an immigrant visa is the first step toward becoming a lawful permanent resident (green card holder). Nonimmigrant categories — tourism, study, temporary work, exchange programs — generally require the applicant to show ties to their home country and an intent to leave when the authorized stay ends. Immigrant visas, by contrast, are explicitly a road to staying permanently, whether sponsored by a family member, an employer, or (in a small number of cases) self-petitioned. USCIS and the State Department jointly administer the system: USCIS handles petitions and status inside the US, while the State Department’s consular officers issue the actual visa stamp abroad.

Which visa do tourists and business visitors use?

Most short-term visitors use a B-1 (business) or B-2 (tourism) visa, commonly issued together as a B-1/B2. These allow stays of up to six months at a time for activities like meetings, conferences, tourism, or visiting family, but they do not permit US employment. Citizens of dozens of countries can skip the visa entirely for stays under 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, though that’s a separate authorization (ESTA), not a visa.

What visas cover students and exchange visitors?

Academic students use an F-1 visa, vocational students use an M-1, and exchange visitors — think au pairs, researchers, or visiting scholars — use a J-1. All three require sponsorship: F-1 and M-1 students need acceptance at a school certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, while J-1 participants are sponsored by an approved exchange program. F-1 students can often work on campus and, after their program, through Optional Practical Training; J-1 rules vary considerably by program category.

Which visas let someone work in the US temporarily?

Temporary work visas are split by occupation and purpose: H-1B for specialty occupations, L-1 for intracompany transfers, O-1 for extraordinary ability, P for athletes and entertainers, TN for USMCA-covered professionals, E for treaty traders and investors, and R-1 for religious workers. Here’s a quick-reference summary:

Each of these has its own eligibility test, sponsor requirement, and fee structure, and several — especially H-1B — are subject to annual numerical caps.

What’s happening with the H-1B $100,000 fee right now?

Since September 21, 2025, most new H-1B petitions must be accompanied by a $100,000 payment under a presidential proclamation, and that requirement was extended for another 12 months — through September 21, 2027 — by a companion proclamation the White House issued on September 18, 2026. The fee applies with only narrow, specified exceptions and is separate from the standard $215-per-beneficiary registration fee charged during the annual cap lottery. USCIS has also moved to a wage-weighted, beneficiary-centric selection process that favors higher-paid job offers when registrations exceed the annual cap. Because this area has moved multiple times within the past year — and USCIS separately announced EB-5 investor-visa fee updates on September 29, 2026 and a broader inflation-based fee increase for fiscal year 2027 the following day — treat any specific dollar figure here as a snapshot, not a permanent number, and confirm current fees directly on USCIS.gov before filing anything.

How do family and fiancé(e) visa categories work?

US citizens and green card holders can sponsor close relatives through family-based categories, and a US citizen engaged to a foreign national can use a K-1 fiancé(e) visa to bring them to the US to marry within 90 days. Immediate relatives of US citizens (spouses, unmarried minor children, parents) have no annual numerical limit and generally move fastest. Other relatives fall into preference categories — F1 (adult children of citizens), F2A/F2B (spouses, children, and adult unmarried children of green card holders), F3 (married children of citizens), and F4 (siblings of citizens) — each subject to per-country annual caps that create the waiting lists tracked in the monthly Visa Bulletin.

What are the employment-based green card categories?

Employment-based immigrant visas are grouped into five preference categories, EB-1 through EB-5, ranked roughly by skill level and investment size.

EB-5 in particular has seen fee changes recently: USCIS announced EB-5 fee updates in late September 2026 as part of a broader program-integrity push, so applicants should confirm current investment thresholds and fees on USCIS.gov rather than relying on older figures. A separate, much smaller program — a set of investor “Gold Card” options created by executive order in September 2025, with tiers reportedly around $1 million for individuals and $2 million for corporate sponsors — offers an accelerated track tied to EB-1/EB-2 processing, but public reporting through mid-2026 described uptake as limited. We’re not restating specific applicant or approval counts here, since those figures haven’t been independently confirmed against DHS’s own reporting; check USCIS.gov directly for the program’s current status.

Where can I confirm current fees and requirements?

USCIS.gov and the State Department’s travel.state.gov are the two primary sources for current visa fees, forms, and eligibility rules, and both should be checked directly before filing anything. This guide is a general explainer, not legal advice, and immigration law changes frequently — fee amounts, cap numbers, and processing rules in particular are worth reconfirming close to the date you plan to apply. If your situation touches green card wait times specifically, our breakdown of the October 2026 Visa Bulletin explains how the monthly priority-date system works for family and employment categories already in the pipeline.

Visa rules are detailed and change on their own schedules, but the letter-code system above covers the categories most applicants will actually encounter. When in doubt, a licensed immigration attorney or the government’s own published guidance — not a summary like this one — should be the final word on any specific case.