The ESTA, or Electronic System for Travel Authorization, is not a visa at all, but a simple online authorization that must be obtained by any citizen of one of the 39 participant countries of the Visa Waiver Program of the United States.

The B2 Visitor visa is one of the most generous and welcoming of non- immigrant visas for entering the United States. Once issued, it is valid for 10 years of multiple entries, with each visit as long as six months.

You can apply for the J1 College and University visa if you’re a student or have recently graduated, or if you are seeking an internship to satisfy a degree requirement in your home country.

The Au Pair Visa encourage people from other cultures to visit the USA. The Au Pair program offers you a warm, rewarding and enjoyable intercultural opportunity to live and contribute as part of an American family while working and studying.

The Summer Work Travel Program (SWTP) is undeniably one of the most popular exchange programs in the US Exchange Visitor Program. Of the 8.3 million people who have entered the US since 1987 on a J-1 exchange visitor visa, over 2.3 million have been exchange students in the Summer Work Travel Program.

The Trainee Program represents a distinctive opportunity to young professionals all over the world to visit the United States to both advance their skills and enjoy USA’s life and culture.

The Secondary School Student Program (SSSP) is a unique opportunity for secondary school students from all over the world to travel to the USA and study at an accredited public or private high school for an academic semester or year while living with an American host family or an approved boarding school.

Under the Intern Program, non-US college and university students or recent graduates can come to the United States to American culture and lifestyles while receiving hands-on experience in their chosen professional, occupational or business area of study field as an intern with a company.

The F1 Student visa would be your choice for entering the United States to pursue an academic course of study (rather than a vocational course of training). With the F1 visa, you can be a full-time student at an accredited college, university, seminary, conservatory, academic high school, elementary school or other academic institution, or else in an English language training program

The M1 Student visa would be your choice for entering the United States to pursue a course of non-academic or vocational training. Your purpose would be to master a certain skill rather than obtain an academic degree, diploma or certificate. At the end of course, you may receive a certification of attendance and mastery.

The Research Scholar Program was designed to promote the free flow and exchange of ideas, research, mutual enrichment and linkages between research and academic institutions in the United States and foreign countries through the participation of their professors, researchers, post- or pre-doctoral students, graduate students and professionals such as doctors and attorneys.

The Camp Counselor Program is a great opportunity for post-secondary students, youth workers and teachers to share their culture and ideas with the people of the United States in camp settings throughout the country.

You probably know it better as the ‘Green Card Lottery’. The Diversity Visa is one of the most visible and durable signs of the United States’ commitment to having a population as ethnically diverse as possible. If you are from a country that is not very well represented in the United States ethnic mix and can meet a few other straightforward but strict conditions, you can enter the ‘Green Card Lottery’.

The Visitor B-2 visa is the perfect choice for someone planning a holiday in the US or who wants to meet up with family and friends. The B-2 is a non-immigrant visa valid for ten years that allows you multiple entries into the United States for specific defined non-work-related purposes, including undergoing medical treatment

No matter which kind of fiancé you are, you will need a US citizen to whom you are engaged to be married. You will enter the US on a K-1 Nonimmigrant visa and will have a period of 90 days during which to solemnize your marriage to the US citizen.

One of the downsides of entering the United States as an immigrant is loneliness. A married person may enter the US as a Lawful Permanent Resident but meanwhile, they are really missing their wife and children. The K-3 nonimmigrant visa was created to help shorten the physical separation between foreign citizens and their US citizen spouses while they inch towards a Green Card.

If you are the spouse, unmarried child under the age of 21, orphan adopted abroad by US citizens, or parent of a US citizen who is at least 21 years old, you are instantly eligible. There is no annual limit to how many immediate relatives of US citizens may be allowed to immigrate to the US.

Under the Physician Program, non-US physicians can participate in graduate medical education programs or clinical training programs at US schools of medicine that are members of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

The Professor Program was designed to promote the free flow and exchange of ideas, research, mutual enrichment and linkages between research and academic institutions in the United States and foreign countries through the participation of their professors, researchers, post- or pre-doctoral students, graduate students and other professionals such as doctors and attorneys.

The Short-Term Scholar Program was designed to enable professors, research scholars and other individuals with specialized knowledge or skills to travel to the USA on a short-term visit to lecture, observe, consult, train or demonstrate their special skills.

The Teacher Program visa gives foreign teachers a great opportunity to teach in accredited American primary and secondary schools while also experiencing the life and culture of the United States.

Let’s say you’re working as chief of software development for IBM — but you’re not working at IBM, USA. Instead, you’re in the IBM office in Seoul, South Korea. Your bosses decide that you’re so good at your work that they’d like to offer your expertise for maybe a year at the US headquarters of IBM. You’d be going as an Intracompany Transferee. Your family can go too.

EB1 Extraordinary Ability visa, also known as the EB1A or EB1EA visa, is the only EB-1 visa that allows you to petition directly on your own behalf, with the need for a US-based employer to first file for labor certification from the Department of Labor on your behalf. The EB, which is also processed much faster than the EB-2 or EB-3 categories, can be a magnet for highly accomplished and distinguished scholars, researchers, post-doctoral research fellows, PhD students and other advanced degree professionals.

The EB-2 Visa is designed for Second Priority workers. This refers to professionals with advanced degrees and people whose exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business is expected to substantially benefit the American economy, welfare, or cultural or educational interests. This visa requires a prior job offer from a prospective US-based employer.

The EB-3 Visa is designed for Third Priority workers. It exists because most people would not fit the elevated and demanding requirements of the EB-1 and EB-2 visas such as exceptional ability, global recognition, and advanced education. The EB-3 visa, with less exacting requirements, makes room for skilled workers, professionals, and other workers.

You probably know it better as the ‘Green Card Lottery’. The Diversity Visa is one of the most visible and durable signs of the United States’ commitment to having a population as ethnically diverse as possible. If you are from a country that is not very well represented in the United States ethnic mix and can meet a few other straightforward but strict conditions, you can enter the ‘Green Card Lottery’.

As with the H-1B, you will need to show that a US-based employer has offered you a temporary position that fits the definition of a specialty occupation. This means that you will be performing a job that requires specialized knowledge that can generally be gained only through a bachelor’s degree or higher, or its equivalent.

One of the ways in which the United States promotes international trade and commerce is by entering into treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation with selected countries. This opens the door for buying and selling goods and services, as well as investment, between the US and the treaty country.

In 1994, the United States signed a trilateral agreement with its neighbors with whom it shares a border, Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The North American Free Trade Agreement, simplified as NAFTA, led to the creation of the Trade NAFTA or TN visa, a special nonimmigrant visa that speeds up work authorization for a citizen of Canada or a national of Mexico.

Why do people go to the United States? The commonest two answers are tourism or doing business. These two reasons so overwhelmingly outweigh all others that they are usually combined into a single B1/B2 visa that allows you to enter the US for either tourism or business.

To be eligible as a special immigrant broadcaster for an EB-4 visa, you need to meet the USAGM definition of ‘broadcaster’ which includes reporters, writers, translators, editors, producers, announcers, news broadcast hosts or news analysis specialists. It excludes persons who provide purely technical or support services or work in the entertainment field.

The I-1 visa is perhaps the simplest of all US visas. It requires no complicated paperwork, no US-based sponsor or employer, no complicated credentials to establish, and no proof of awards, recognition or distinction. All you need to be is an accredited employee of a media organization in your own country, with a letter from your employer confirming this.

If you happen to be an individual with extraordinary abilities or talent in the sciences, the arts, education, business or athletics, or if you have extraordinary achievements in the film or TV industry, recognized nationally or internationally, then the O-1 (that’s alphabet ‘O’ and number 1) visa might be exactly what you need.

You are eligible for C-1/D visa if you are a pilot or a flight attendant on a commercial airplane; a captain, an engineer, or a deckhand on a sea vessel; a lifeguard, a cook, a waiter, a beautician, or another type of service staff on a cruise ship; or a trainee on board a training vessel.

You qualify as a religious worker if you are a minister or priest of a religion authorized by a recognized denomination to carry out or preside over religious worship and to perform other duties and rituals usually performed by members of the clergy, such as administering the sacraments or their equivalent.

The EVP is among the most diverse visas for going to the United States and is designed to enable non-Americans to travel within the United States and study or work there as a sponsored exchange visitor while immersing themselves in the local culture.

The International Visitor Program is a people-to-people program under the EVP and is perfect if you are a specialist of distinction, nationally or internationally, recognized as a leader or seen as having great promise and potential in your field of specialization.

You are eligible for an EB-5 if you are wealthy, want to invest a significant sum of money into a US business or project, and can show that your investment will lead to the creation of at least 10 full-time jobs for US citizens.

The H-1B visa allows United States employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in a job that requires specialized knowledge or experience — known as specialty occupations — to work in the US. Examples of specialty fields are biotechnology, chemistry, computing, architecture, engineering, statistics, physical sciences, and journalism. In health, it can include medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, economics, education, research, law, accounting, business specialties, technical writing, theology, and the arts, among others.

Let’s say you come from the small nation of Burkina Faso and want to learn about wildlife conservation. Your country doesn’t offer a course in that, but the United States does. The H-3 nonimmigrant visa category was designed exactly for people like you.

The Specialist Program bears a close resemblance to the Short-Term Scholar Program and was designed to provide opportunities for non-US experts in a field of specialized knowledge, or skills to visit the United States to increase the exchange of ideas with American counterparts by observing, consulting or demonstrating their expertise.

The P visa category was specifically created to welcome certain kinds of individuals on temporary visits to the US, including outstanding athletes, athletic teams, artists and entertainment companies (including circuses) who have a job offer from an American employer. There is no annual limit on the number of people who can receive P visas.

You probably know it better as the ‘Green Card Lottery’. The Diversity Visa is one of the most visible and durable signs of the United States’ commitment to having a population as ethnically diverse as possible. If you are from a country that is not very well represented in the United States ethnic mix and can meet a few other straightforward but strict conditions, you can enter the ‘Green Card Lottery’.