India’s Ministry of Home Affairs caused a stir earlier this year when it abruptly changed the immigration rules for business visitors to India. Contract workers and those working on projects there, who in the past had routinely been admitted under the business visitor visa category, were ordered to leave the country no later than Oct. 31, 2009, and apply for a work visa (also called employment visa).1 New guidance is now in place curtailing the activities of business visitors to a list of enumerated categories.2
The fine distinction between authorized business activities and services, on the one hand, and labor or work, on the other, is not limited to immigration authorities in India. With some important exceptions discussed below, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) has historically refused to issue visas—and the immigration sub-agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (and its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service) have refused to grant admission or extend temporary visitor status—to business visitors intending to come to the United States for contract and project work—e.g., a six-month IT upgrade for a client.
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