AMERICAN VISAS : WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE?

The following summary provides only general information regarding the most commonly used U.S. visa and cannot be a substitute for legal advice

There are two broad categories of U.S. visas

Temporary or Non-Immigrant Visas
Permanent or Immigrant Visas

In addition to verifying that a candidate can meet the specific conditions of the chosen visa, one must also confirm that either that there is no Ground of Inadmissibility or that Waiver of the inadmissibility ground can be obtained :

Who is prohibited from receiving a permanent visa ?

To understand immigration law, one needs to keep in mind the difference between a "visa" and "non-immigrant or immigrant status".
Consular officers of U.S. embassies abroad grant visas. A visa confers only the right to travel to the U.S. border and to apply for entry. It does not confer the right to enter to the United States. Only an officer of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the final authority to allow entry in the United States.
If entry is granted, the CBP officer will generally staple a form in the passport (I-94) as evidence of the authorized stay, commonly called "status". The type of status will be noted on the Form I-94 and will generally be the same as the visa type. However, the duration of the status might differ from the duration of the visa. Keep in mind that the validity and duration of the visa has no relevance as to whether one and for how long one is authorized to stay in the United States; only the CBP status is determinative.