The most essential thing that you need to prove to come into the US under a B category is that you intend to leave the US when your legal stay ends.   A B visa is a non-immigrant visa.  That means that you can only come to the US temporarily.   Furthermore, Immigration requires that you demonstrate “non-immigrant intent”.   That means that you intend to only stay temporarily.   In other words, you can’t come to the US on a B visa with the intent to try to stay here and get a green card.

Normally, if they think that you want to stay here permanently, they will not let you enter the US.   This even carries over to people who have someone petitioning for them to come here permanently.   If you are the beneficiary of an employment visa petition, or a relative petition or a Religious Worker petition, and you try to enter the US on a B visa, they could deny you permission to enter because you have the intent to immigrate when the petition is finally approved.   Even though you are intending to enter temporarily now, the fact that you eventually want to live here could be enough for them to deny you entrance on a B visa.

So, how do you convince Immigration (whether at the border, or a consulate officer) that you do not have immigrant intent?   First off, you need to show that you have a home abroad that you have no intention of leaving.   If you can’t give them a home address, they should not let you enter the US or let you get a visa to enter the US.   Secondly, they look for ties to your home country — do you own or rent a home?   Do you have a job that they expect you to return to?   Do you have bank accounts or property in your home country?   Is your husband or wife or are your children there in your home country?   Do you have close family in your home country.   Of course, none of these points will guarantee that you will return home, but that is what they look for.

Then, looking toward coming to the US, they want to know why you are coming and what you will be doing.   You can’t plan on working or earning money here.   You need to have a purpose for coming that lines up with the options (listed last week) under which you can get a B-1 m-ssionary visa.   Finally, you need to be able to demonstrate that you will be able to support yourself while you are here.   If you can’t prove that you can support yourself, they will think that maybe you are intending on working when you come here to the US.

Here are four options for people who want to come to the U.S. as a m-ssionary using the B-1 visa:

• Ministers of Religion coming on an Evangelical tour in the United States. This is for a person who will come to the U.S. and travel around preaching or speaking.   They can be supported by offerings contributed at each evangelical meeting.   But they can’t be using this “tour” to raise support for their work outside the U.S.  It is possible that this person needs to be ordained, but it is not clear.
• Ministers of religion temporarily exchanging pulpits with U.S. counterparts who will continue to be reimbursed by the foreign church and will draw no salary from the host church in the United States.
• General M-ssionary Service. This is for anyone, whether “ordained” or not, entering the United States temporarily for the sole purpose of performing m-ssionary work.   This has to be on behalf of a “denomination” .   It is not clear if the denomination has to have a presence here in the U.S. or it just means that a person has to be a member of a church, and sent by that church.  The person must receive no salary or remuneration from U.S. sources other than an allowance or other reimbursement for expenses incidental to the temporary stay. “M-ssionary work” for this purpose may include religious instruction, aid to the elderly or needy, proselytizing, etc. It does not include ordinary administrative work, nor should it be used as a substitute for ordinary labor for hire.
• In cases where an applicant is coming to perform voluntary services for a religious organization, and does not qualify for R status, the B-1 status remains an option, even if he or she intends to stay a year or more in the United States.
• Aliens participating in a voluntary service program benefiting U.S. local communities, who establish that they are members of, and have a commitment to, a particular recognized religious or nonprofit charitable organization. No salary or remuneration should be paid from a U.S. source, other than an allowance or other reimbursement for expenses incidental to the volunteers’ stay in the United States.