B2 visa symbol meaning.

What B2 means in 22 CFR 41.12

Section 41.12 of Title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is titled “Classification symbols”. It opens: “A nonimmigrant visa issued to an applicant within one of the classes described in this section shall bear an appropriate visa symbol to show its classification. The symbol shall be inserted in the space provided on the visa.” Table 1 to that section then lists each symbol with its class and the section of law. The row for B2 is:

The statute behind the symbol

The “section of law” column points to the Immigration and Nationality Act as codified at 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15), the definition of “immigrant”, which lists the classes of nonimmigrant aliens by letter. The definition begins: “The term “immigrant” means every alien except an alien who is within one of the following classes of nonimmigrant aliens”. B2 is in the group below.

The statute text for subparagraph (B) reads:

“an alien (other than one coming for the purpose of study or of performing skilled or unskilled labor or as a representative of foreign press, radio, film, or other foreign information media coming to engage in such vocation) having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning and who is visiting the United States temporarily for business or temporarily for pleasure;”

Source: 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15), INA 101(a)(15)(B)

Reading the B2 row against its neighbours

B2 is the pleasure half of the visitor pair. The statute clause it cites describes an alien “who is visiting the United States temporarily for business or temporarily for pleasure”, and the regulation assigns B1 to the business wording, B2 to the pleasure wording and B1/B2 to a visa that carries both.

The table does not define “pleasure”. The statute does not either, in the text quoted below. What the statute does give is a list of purposes that are outside this clause: study, skilled or unskilled labor, and working as a representative of foreign press, radio, film or other foreign information media. Each has its own symbols in the table; for instance F1, F2 and F3 for students and their families, and I for foreign information media.

Because B1, B2 and B1/B2 all cite one subparagraph, there is no separate statutory section for B2 alone. If you are comparing the two symbols, the only difference the regulation records is the class name.

What this page does not tell you

A visa symbol is a label. Table 1 says what each class is called and where the classification comes from in law. It says nothing about who qualifies, what evidence is needed, how long anyone may stay, whether work is allowed or what an application costs. Those answers sit in other regulations and in agency guidance and they change, so use the lookup above to read the label and then take the question to the State Department’s visa pages (travel.state.gov, which blocked automated reading on November 2, 2026, so we have not cited its contents) or a licensed immigration attorney.

For other codes seen on immigration paperwork, see the EAD category code lookup, which covers a different code set, and the I-94 number format checker.

Sources

Sources opened and read November 2, 2026.

• eCFR: 22 CFR 41.12 Classification symbols, Table 1 (current text; last amended 2023-09-12 per the eCFR version history) (read November 2, 2026)
• eCFR renderer API, the same section as machine-readable text (read November 2, 2026)
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: 8 U.S.C. 1101, definitions, subsection (a)(15) (read November 2, 2026)