B-1 VISA ENTRY INTO THE USA UNDER NAFTA

It is true that most Canadians admitted to the United States to conduct business avail themselves to the B-1 temporary Visitor for Business Visa. The B-1 Visa itself actually allows Canadian business people to handle a wide spectrum of business activities, however there are limitations, and the B-1 Visa is valid for only up to one year.

Essentially, the traditional B-1 Visa guidelines that obtained before NAFTA still apply today, with the footnote that the B-1 Visa is today subject to instant processing right at U.S. Ports of Entry at the time of admission and NAFTA, per Schedule 1, has actually expanded the list of acceptable B-1 activities in the U.S. (See Schedule 1, below).

Little paperwork per se is required to apply for the B-1 Visa, however, Applicants must present to U.S. Immigration Inspectors:

1. Proof of Canadian citizenship
2. The purpose for the entry, and
3. Proof that the Applicant is engaged in an acceptable occupational activity under NAFTA.

In that the B-1 Visa is by definition temporary, the business to be conducted in the U.S. must be of a temporary nature and international in scope.

This can be demonstrated by showing several things, starting with:

(a) the Applicant’s home and business address are and will remain in Canada, and, further, that the Applicant has no intention of abandoning this nexus to Canada;

(b) the Applicant seeks admission to perform services for his or her foreign (Canadian) company; and

(c) the Applicant will not receive any salary or remuneration from any U.S. source of income at all. Payment for services and expenses must come from outside the U.S., and should be made, for example, by the Canadian company, in Canadian dollars, through Canadian banking facilities.

Multiple entries may be necessary in future, and the B-1 Visa, once issued, allows for the same, and, of course, the Applicant must never seek to enter the U.S. labor market while on the B-1 Visa.

Various documents, deeds, bank letters, company letters, and the like, can and should be used to corroborate the above.

Schedule 1 sets forth a list of B-1 Visa activities in the U.S.