D visa symbol meaning.

What D 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 D 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”. D is in the group below.

Subparagraph (D) of the statute has three clauses. The first, on vessels and aircraft, reads:

“an alien crewman serving in good faith as such in a capacity required for normal operation and service on board a vessel, as defined in section 1288(a) of this title (other than a fishing vessel having its home port or an operating base in the United States), or aircraft, who intends to land temporarily and solely in pursuit of his calling as a crewman and to depart from the United States with the vessel or aircraft on which he arrived or some other vessel or aircraft;”

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

Reading the D row against its neighbours

The table’s D row is “Crewmember (Sea or Air)” and cites INA 101(a)(15)(D). There is one other row that mentions crew: C1/D, “Combined Transit and Crewmember Visa”, which cites (C) and (D) together.

The statute’s subparagraph (D) has three clauses. Clause (i), quoted below, covers a crewman on a vessel or aircraft who “intends to land temporarily and solely in pursuit of his calling as a crewman”. Clause (ii) covers a crewman on a fishing vessel having its home port or operating base in the United States who intends to land temporarily in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Clause (iii) covers a crewman performing ship-to-ship liquid cargo transfer operations, for a period not to exceed 180 days. The regulation uses one symbol, D, for the whole subparagraph.

The class name in the table says “Sea or Air”. Those words are the regulation’s summary; the statute’s own wording is the vessel, aircraft and fishing vessel language above.

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)