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The word visa is often misused. A visa is, in effect, an admission ticket. You get it at a US consulate and use it at the airport, seaport or land border crossing when you enter the US. You usually also need it when boarding your flight or ship. When you arrive in the US, the BCBP immigration inspector will look at your passport with the visa in it and grant you a corresponding status.
After you arrive in the USA, you do not need the visa at all, ever! In fact, there are many people whose visa expired or whose visa is of a different category, but yet they are perfectly legally in the USA.
There are two main types of visa: immigrant and non-immigrant. A non-immigrant visa is a sticker in your passport (it used to be a stamp, and in fact the term "visa stamp" is sometimes still used to distinguish it from the term "visa" when you really mean "status"). It takes up a full page in your passport.
An immigrant visa is sometimes also called a "mysterious brown envelope", for that is exactly what it is. The consulate will take all documents that you sent in, the visa application form, medical examination, etc. and put it all into a brown envelope. This envelope is the visa. Remember to keep it sealed; once the seal is broken, the visa would become worthless. |
