If you wish to hire a foreign national, you have several temporary visa options to choose from depending on the nature and circumstances of the position offered , the qualifications of the foreign national, and the type of business you are recruiting for. In most cases, you, as the employer, file an application or petition on behalf of the foreign national, the beneficiary of the application or petition, with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the regional processing center that serves your state. For example, the California Service Center in Laguna Niguel, California, processes most temporary visa applications and petitions from California and the Western states, while, for example, the Vermont Service Center in St. Albans, Vermont, processes applications from the Northeastern states. Applications and petitions are prepared, completed and signed by you, then submitted to USCIS for processing with the necessary supporting evidentiary documentation and mandatory filing fees. For certain visa categories, it is possible to pay an additional $1,000 fee to request expeditious premium processing that guarantees that your case will be reviewed and some sort of decision rendered within 15 business days.

Once the application or petition is approved, if the employee is changing her visa status from another valid status, such as that of a student, the employee may be able to be placed on payroll immediately without having to first leave the country to obtain a visa stamp at a Consular post overseas. If the foreign national is overseas, she will first need to apply for a visa at the Consular post overseas as a condition to entering the country to commence her U.S. assignment.

A visa refers to the stamp placed in a passport by a Consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas, indicating which particular immigration category from the alphabet soup of temporary visas the passport bearer has been approved for. Visa status, on the other hand, refers to the immigration category into which that the foreign individual has been approved. Visa stamps are issued by the State Department through its overseas Consulates and Embassies; their sole purpose is to allow a foreign national to apply for entry into the U.S. Visa stamps do not in any way guarantee entry, since the foreign national must also be inspected and admitted by a Department of Homeland Security officer at the port of entry.

By obtaining temporary (nonimmigrant) visa status for a foreign national, a U.S. employer can hire a foreign-born employee for a temporary assignment; a foreign employer can send key foreign-born employees to the U.S.; or an individual foreign national can visit, study, work, set up a business, or enter the U.S. as the fiancé or spouse of a U.S. citizen. Several key principles govern temporary visas:

• They are issued for a short-term, temporary period of time
• They are usually tied to a specific employer, enterprise, institution, or individual
• Time allowed in the U.S. for a temporary stay can often be extended
• It is often possible to change from one temporary visa status to another, sometimes without having to depart the U.S.