Domestic Employees: B-1

• Description
• Qualifications
• Accompanying a Non-Immigrant Visa Holder
• Accompanying an American Citizen
• Accompanying a U.S. Legal Permanent Resident

Description

Personal or domestic servants who are accompanying or following to join an employer in the United States are eligible for B-1 visas. This category of domestic employees includes, but is not limited to, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, housemaids, valets, footmen, nannies, au pairs, mothers' helpers, gardeners, and paid companions.

Qualifications
B-1

For a B-1 visa, domestic employees must demonstrate to a consular officer and/or to DHS that they qualify for a U.S. visa according to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 214(b) of the INA presumes that every B-1/B-2 visa applicant is an intending immigrant. Thus, applicants for a B-1 domestic worker visa must overcome this legal presumption by demonstrating that:

• The purpose of their trip is to enter the United States for work as a domestic employee;
• They plan to remain for a specific, limited period;
  
• Their employer meets certain qualifications;
• They have evidence of compelling social and economic ties abroad; and
• They have a residence outside the United States as well as other binding ties that will ensure their return abroad at the end of the contract

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Accompanying a Non-Immigrant Visa Holder

Domestic employees who are accompanying or following to join an employer who seeks admission to, or who is already in, the United States in B, E, F, H, I, J, L, M, O, P, Q, or R Non-Immigrant status may be eligible for the B-1 visa classification provided:

• The employee has been employed outside the United States by the employer for at least one year prior to the date of the employer's admission to the United States, or if the employer-employee relationship existed immediately prior to the time of application,
• The employer can demonstrate that he has regularly employed (either year-round or seasonally) domestic help over a period of years preceding the time of application;
• The employee has at least one year's experience as a personal or domestic servant as attested to by statements from previous employers;
• The employer will be the only provider of employment, and will provide the employee free room and board and round trip airfare as indicated under the terms of the employment contract.

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Accompanying an American Citizen

Domestic employees who are accompanying or following to join their United States citizen employer in the United States may be eligible for the B-1 visa classification if their American employer ordinarily resides outside the United States and is traveling to the United States temporarily, or the American employer is subject to frequent international transfers lasting two years or more and who, as a condition of employment, is going to reside in the United States for a stay not to exceed four years.

In addition:

• The employer-employee relationship must have existed for at least 6 months prior to the employer's admission to the United States or, alternatively, that the employer has regularly employed a domestic servant in the same capacity while abroad;
• The employee has had at least one year experience as a personal or domestic servant by producing statements from previous employers attesting to such experience;
• The employer will be the only provider of employment, and will provide the employee free room and board and round trip airfare as indicated under the terms of the employment contract.

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Note: It is not possible to qualify for a B-1 visa if the United States citizen will reside permanently in the United States, even if the individual concerned has previously been in the United States citizen's employ abroad.

Accompanying a U.S. Legal Permanent Resident
U.S. Legal Permanent Residents (Green card holders) are not permitted to bring their domestic workers to the United States on a B-1 visa under any circumstances.