Temporary Worker Visa

Excerpts from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. For more information, click on http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

Employers who wish to hire foreign workers to temporarily perform services or labor or to receive training may file a petition for nonimmigrant categories; thus, in most cases, workers who enter the United States under this petition must depart the U.S. when their maximum period of stay has been reached. There are many categories of workers who are temporary visitors. These nonimmigrant classifications are symbolized by letters which generally correspond to the visas issued by the State Department.

H-1B

The H-1B visa program is used by some U.S.employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors. The H-1B visa program also includes certain fashion models of distinguished merit and ability and up to 100 persons who will performing services of an exceptional nature in connection with Department of Defense (DOD) research and development projects or coproduction projects.

Maximum Stay Information for Temporary Employment Visas

Class	Initial Stay	Extension of Stay
E-1	Two (2) years	Up to 2 years per extension. No maximum number of extensions, with some exceptions.
E-2	Two (2) years	Up to 2 years per extension. No maximum number of extensions, with some exceptions.
E-3 Australian Specialty Occupation Workers	Two (2) years	Up to 2 years per extension. No maximum number of extensions.
H-1B	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 3 years. Total stay limited to 6 years.
H-1B1 Free Trade nonimmigrant professional from Chile or Singapore	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 3 years. Total stay limited to 6 years.
H-1B2	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 3 years. Total stay limited to 6 years, with some exceptions.
H-1B3	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 3 years. Total stay limited to 6 years, with some exceptions.
H-1C	Up to 3 years	Total stay limited to 3 years.
H-2A and H-2B	Same as validity of labor certification, with maximum of 1 year.	Same as validity of labor certification (increments of up to 1 year). Total stay limited to 3 years.
H-3	Special Education Training-up to 18 months. Other Trainee-up to 2 years	Special Education Trainee-total stay limited to 18 months. Other Trainee-total stay limited to 2 years.
L-1A	Coming to existing office-up to 3 years. Coming to new office-up to 1 year.	Increments of up to 2 years. Total stay limited to 7 years.
L-1B	Coming to existing office-up to 3 years. Coming to new office-up to 1 year	One increment of up to 2 years. Total stay limited to 5 years.
O-1 and O-2	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 1 year
P-1, P-2, P-3 and their support personnel	Individual athlete-up to 5 years. Athletic groups and Entertainment groups-up to 1 year.	Individual athlete-Increments of up to 5 years. Total stay limited to 10 years. Athletic groups and entertainment groups-Increments of 1 year.
Q-1	Up to 15 months.	Total stay limited to 15 months
R-1 and R-2	Up to 3 years	Increments of up to 2 years. Total stay limited to 5 years.
All other	Up to 1 year	Increments of up to 1 year