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An internship would be denied a B1/B2 visa . A B1/B2 Visa is a business visa. Internships are viewed as “work” even if unpaid. People who intend to work in the U.S. (paid or unpaid) will need a visa and cannot do the waiver. If the participant was trying to attend an unpaid internship program, the participant would be subject to denial of entry attempt at the port of entry. The business visa says that you are coming from as selling company sponsored by the sending country to work and do business in the U.S. In other words, the foreign government is saying that this person is being supported by a company from the sending country to do business for the sending company in the U.S. However with a B1 visa, a participant could still participate in a missionary training program that had an event fee. With those visa parameters it means participants are not allowed to raise support for their event through Reliant. To clarify, they could participant in an event that they paid a fee for, but they could not raise any support with a fundraising event because they are supposed to be supported by the sending country company. Note that the B-1 visa is for a visitor for business and a B-2 visa is a visitor for pleasure. You would need to state that your purpose is "business."
Our immigration lawyer found this clause amongst the approved purposes for the B-1, Business Visa is the following Foreign Affairs Manual provision: 9 FAM 402.2-5(C)(1) Ministers of Religion and Missionaries Previous Location, 9 FAM 41.31 N9.1-3 Missionary Work “Members of religious denominations, whether ordained or not, entering the United States temporarily for the sole purpose of performing missionary work on behalf of a denomination, so long as the work does not involve the selling of articles or the solicitation or acceptance of donations and provided the minister will receive no salary or remuneration from U.S. sources other than allowance or other reimbursement for expenses incidental to the temporarystay. “Missionary work” for this purpose may include religious instruction, aid to the elderly or needy, proselytizing, etc. It does not include ordinary administrative work, nor should it be used as a substitute for ordinary labor for hire.”
So, with a B-1 Visa, a participant can attend a program with fees where they would be doing missionary work or attending missionary training. To re-emphasize, the program can NOT be an internship program under a B1 visa, as that term would be a red flag. The participant would need to be a part of a program/event (not an internship) with an event fee (not fundraising/taking donations). If the participant did need to fundraise to cover the program fee, the participant can do that before or after the program back in their home country soliciting funds own their own (given directly to them), but they could not do that during the program while in the U.S. The participant is allowed to write update letters about their experiences or prayer requests during the program with their prayer support team, but could not solicit support in those letters while in the U.S. If the program is less than 90 days, the applicant could apply for the ESTA waiver which is essentially a short term B1 Visa. ESTA waiver
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