US Visa Types at a Glance: Work, Investment and Business Travel

America sorts its visitors by letter. B for visits, E for trade and investment, H and L for work, O for exceptional talent, EB for the employment-based green card. Each letter answers one question: what are you allowed to do in the USA? Here is the overview for entrepreneurs, executives and investors from Europe.

1Visa, status, green card: three words, three things

When people talk about US visas, they often mix up three things. The visa is the sticker in your passport, issued by a consulate. It lets you ask to be admitted at the border, nothing more. Whether you get in and how long you may stay is decided by the border officer when you arrive. The result is recorded in the I-94, the electronic arrival record, and that is your status. If you want to stay longer than it allows, you must apply for an extension beforehand.

The green card, finally, is not a visa but permanent residence. If you pursue it from abroad, you receive an immigrant visa at the end of the process and the green card when you enter. If you are already in the USA, you can, under certain conditions, apply there without a visa, through an application for Adjustment of Status.

This is more than hair-splitting. How long the visa in your passport is valid and how long you are admitted for are two different dates. With the E-2, for example, you are admitted for up to two years each time you enter; with the B-1, for as long as your purpose requires. For planning, the I-94 is always what counts.

2The letters in your passport: how the classes work

The USA divides all visas into two large groups. Nonimmigrant visas cover a temporary purpose: visiting, working, trade, investment, study. They carry letters set by the section of the immigration law: B for visitors, E for traders and investors from treaty countries, H for temporary workers, L for employees within a corporate group, O for people with extraordinary ability. The number that follows marks the subcategory, such as E-1 and E-2 or L-1A and L-1B.

Immigrant visas lead to the green card. For entrepreneurs, the employment-based categories matter: EB-1 for extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational managers; EB-2 for advanced degree holders and people with exceptional ability; EB-3 for skilled and other workers; EB-5 for investors.

A second difference is how you get there. Some visas you apply for directly at the consulate, such as the B-1, E-1 and E-2. Others first require a petition with USCIS, usually by an employer, such as the L-1, H-1B and O-1. This shows in the consular fees: $185 for visitor visas, $205 for the petition-based H, L and O visas, $315 for E visas and $345 for an employment-based immigrant visa.

3No visa: ESTA and the Visa Waiver Program

Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands all belong to the Visa Waiver Program. Their citizens can travel to the USA for business or vacation for up to 90 days without a visa, provided they have obtained electronic travel authorization through ESTA beforehand and hold a valid passport from their country.

ESTA is convenient, but it has two hard limits. First, it only allows what a visitor may do: negotiate, consult, attend conferences, take a vacation. Working in the USA is ruled out. Second, you cannot change to another status inside the USA on ESTA. If you enter on ESTA and then want a work visa, you generally have to leave and apply for the visa abroad.

Even so, ESTA is all you need for many business trips. Exactly what is allowed is explained in ESTA and the B-1 visa.

4Business travel with a visa: the B-1

The B-1 is the visitor visa for business travel, often issued as a combined B-1/B-2 for people who travel sometimes for business, sometimes for pleasure. On entry you are admitted for as long as your purpose requires; USCIS generally puts this at one to six months, with a maximum of one year. You can extend in increments of up to six months using Form I-539.

The B-1 covers the same activities as ESTA: negotiating contracts, consulting with business partners, attending conferences, litigating, doing independent research, taking orders for goods made abroad. If you are looking for an investment, including for a future E-2, or want to evaluate an EB-5 project, you may come on a B visa. What you may not do is productive work or actively run the business.

For the B-1 you must show that your trip has a genuine business purpose, that you will stay only for a set period, that you can pay for the trip and that you have a residence abroad you are not giving up. Your family does not get a derivative visa; each family member applies for their own B-2.

5Work: visas with an employer behind them

If you want to work in the USA, you need a visa that allows exactly that work. For entrepreneurs and their teams, three types are in play, all requiring a USCIS petition on Form I-129.

The L-1 brings executives, managers and specialists who have worked for the company abroad for at least one year into the affiliated US company, including a new office. The H-1B is for professionals with a bachelor's degree in a specific field, but it is capped at 65,000 new visas a year plus 20,000 for US master's graduates and runs through a registration in March. The O-1 is for people at the top of their field, with an employer or agent as petitioner.

All three tie you to a specific job. With all three you may pursue a green card at the same time. If you need the differences for your team, see L-1 or H-1B for employees?; the qualification routes are compared in EB-1A, NIW or O-1?

6Investment and trade: the E visas

E visas are only available to nationals of countries that have a treaty of commerce and navigation with the USA. Unlike the L-1, H-1B and O-1, you apply for them from abroad directly at the consulate, with no USCIS petition.

The E-2 is the visa for investors who make a substantial investment in a real, non-marginal US business and direct it themselves. The E-1 is the visa for traders whose company has an ongoing flow of trade with the USA, more than 50 percent of it with the home country. With both you are admitted for up to two years, extensions are possible with no limit on their number, and your spouse may work. Employees of the same nationality can come along.

Which of the two fits your business is shown in E-1 or E-2? If you are torn between the E-2 and an intracompany transfer, read L-1 or E-2: which visa is right for you.

7Green card: immigrant visas through work and investment

For all employment-based green cards combined, the law generally provides 140,000 visas a year, spread across five categories. For entrepreneurs, four routes matter most.

• EB-1C for managers and executives who have worked for a year in a leadership role at the company abroad and will continue in a leadership role at the affiliated US company. The US employer files the petition.
• EB-1A for people at the very top of their field, with a single major award or three of ten criteria. You file the petition yourself.
• EB-2 NIW for professionals with advanced degrees or people with exceptional ability whose plans are in the national interest. Here too you file yourself, with no job offer needed.
• EB-5 for investors, with $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area or infrastructure project, plus ten new full-time jobs.

When demand in a category or for a country exceeds supply, a queue forms. The State Department publishes where things stand every month in the Visa Bulletin. For an overview of every route to a green card, see Green Card for Entrepreneurs.

8Changing status without leaving the country

If you are in the US on a valid nonimmigrant visa, you can often change your purpose without leaving: by filing a Change of Status application with USCIS before your authorized stay ends. For work visas and E visas, you file Form I-129; for other changes and extensions, such as to B-1, Form I-539. An investor in the US on a valid B-1, for example, can switch to E-2 status this way.

Two rules always apply. If you entered on ESTA, you cannot change your status. And until USCIS approves the change, you may not change what you do: if you came in as a visitor, you do not work until the approval is in hand. Violating your status puts your future return to the US at risk.

9Where and how to apply

You apply for the visa at the US embassy or consulate in the country where you live or whose citizenship you hold.

For every nonimmigrant visa you complete the online form DS-160, and for the E-1 and E-2 also the DS-156-E. Since September 2, 2025, almost all applicants need an in-person interview with a consular officer, regardless of age. The main exceptions are diplomats and adults renewing a full B-1 or B-2 visa within twelve months of its expiry. The consulate does not refund the application fee, not even if you are refused.

10Which type fits your plans

The second table matches typical plans to the right visa type. It is no substitute for a proper review, but it shows you where to start. Many entrepreneurs need no work visa at first, just a business trip on ESTA to get to know locations, partners and banks. Only once it is clear what you want to build in the US is it worth asking which visa is right.

At that point one question matters most: do you have a company at home that can send you? If so, the L-1 is usually the fastest route. If not, you invest in your own US business with the E-2, or you take the route based on your qualifications. All nine routes side by side, with duration, family and fees, are in Which US visa is right for you?

In short

• The US distinguishes between nonimmigrant visas for a temporary purpose and immigrant visas that lead to a green card.
• With ESTA, citizens of Visa Waiver Program countries, including most of Europe, can visit for up to 90 days for business or pleasure without a visa, but cannot work or change status in the US.
• The L-1, H-1B and O-1 allow you to work through a petition with USCIS; the E-1 and E-2 through an application filed directly at the consulate.
• A green card through employment or investment comes via the categories EB-1 to EB-5.
• How long you may stay is set by the I-94 on entry, not by the validity of the visa in your passport.

How we help you

• Visa RoadmapIn writing: which visa fits you and your family, prepared with the immigration attorney on the firm's team.
• Visa and Green Card ConsultationWhich route to the USA fits you, settled in one conversation.
• Visa Roadmap for Company FormationFormation and visa in one plan, so the company carries the visa.
• Moving to the USAVisa, bank account, taxes and where to live: your move with Mount Bonnell Advisors.