A U.S. work visa looks like a full-page foil sticker glued inside your passport, printed with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Capitol behind holographic film and multicolored security patterns that shift under direct light. That sticker is the visa itself, but the phrase “work visa” is loose in everyday use. The full set of documents a work-authorized person carries usually includes some combination of the passport foil, a wallet-sized plastic Employment Authorization Document, an I-94 arrival record printed on plain paper, and sometimes an I-797 petition approval notice. Each looks different, and each does a different job.
The Foil Sticker in Your Passport
The physical visa is a Machine Readable Visa label that fills most of a passport page. The current design shows Abraham Lincoln and the Capitol in the background, and the same foil is used for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas.1U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Guide to Selected U.S. Travel and Identity Documents It is bonded to the page with industrial-strength adhesive. Try to peel it off and the paper tears visibly, which is part of the point.
Held under a lamp, the foil shows holographic film and fine watermarks that change as you tilt the page. The background uses multicolored patterns and fine-line printing that make a photocopy or scan look obviously off. The material feels slightly thicker than the surrounding passport page, with a smooth laminated finish over the printed data. Keep it dry and don’t bend the page; damage to the surface can draw questions at inspection even if the data is still readable.
What Is Printed on the Foil
A high-resolution photo of the holder sits on the right side of the label. Near the top, the foil prints the visa classification symbol. For work visas, common symbols include H1B for a specialty occupation worker, L1 for an intracompany transferee, O1 for someone with extraordinary ability, TN for a NAFTA professional, and E2 for a treaty investor.2eCFR. 22 CFR 41.12 – Classification Symbols That code is the fastest way to tell what kind of work the visa authorizes.
The other fields are set by federal regulation. At minimum, the foil prints the holder’s full name, sex, date of birth, nationality, passport number, the issuing consulate, the number of entries permitted (M for multiple, S for single), the dates of issuance and expiration, and a unique visa control number in the upper-right corner.3eCFR. 22 CFR 41.113 – Procedures in Issuing Visas Work visas also carry an annotation field, which often contains the employer’s name or the USCIS petition receipt number tying the visa back to a specific approved petition.
Along the bottom edge, two lines of characters form the machine-readable zone. Each line contains 44 characters encoding the document type, name, passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex, and expiration date.4International Civil Aviation Organization. Doc 9303 Machine Readable Travel Documents Only uppercase A through Z, digits 0 through 9, and a filler character appear there. Border officers scan that zone first, then check the printed fields above it.
The Employment Authorization Document
Form I-766, the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), is a wallet-sized plastic card that resembles a driver’s license. The holder’s photograph sits on the left, with a smaller “ghost” image of the same photo alongside it as an anti-fraud feature. Optical variable ink shifts color as you change the viewing angle.
The card prints the holder’s name, date of birth, a USCIS-assigned identification number, and a category code that identifies the basis for work authorization. Those codes correspond to the classes of employment-eligible noncitizens defined in federal regulation.5eCFR. 8 CFR 274a.12 – Classes of Aliens Authorized to Accept Employment Codes like C09 (pending adjustment of status) or C10 (pending asylum applicant) tie the card to the specific immigration situation behind it. An expiration date is printed on the face of the card and is the hard deadline for that period of work authorization.
One line on the card is easy to miss: it reads “NOT VALID FOR REENTRY.” The EAD alone does not let you leave the country and return. International travel requires a separate valid visa stamp or advance parole document.
The I-94 Arrival Record
The I-94 proves you were legally admitted through a U.S. port of entry. It used to be a small paper card tucked into the passport, but CBP now generates it electronically from your travel records when you clear immigration.6U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arrival/Departure Forms: I-94 and I-94W What you actually hold is a plain black-and-white printout pulled from the CBP online portal. No holograms, no photo, no color.
The printout shows an 11-character admission number, your class of admission (matching the visa classification), and the date through which you are authorized to stay.7U.S. Customs and Border Protection. I-94 Official Website Some visa holders, students in particular, will see “D/S” in place of a calendar date, meaning the authorized stay lasts for the duration of the program rather than ending on a fixed day.
The I-797 Approval Notice
When an employer files a work petition for you (an H-1B or L-1 petition, for example), the approval comes back as Form I-797, Notice of Action. It surprises people because it looks nothing like the other documents. Plain white paper, no holograms, no photo, no plastic.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797 Types and Functions
The notice prints the petition receipt number (a 13-character alphanumeric string starting with three letters), the approved visa classification, the petition validity dates, and the beneficiary’s personal information. A header at the top states “THIS NOTICE DOES NOT GRANT ANY IMMIGRATION STATUS OR BENEFIT.”9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-797C Notice of Action The approval confirms the petition itself was granted; actual status is conferred at the port of entry or through a change-of-status decision.
The Stamp Is Not Your Status
One point of confusion is worth naming clearly. The foil in your passport is a travel document, not your work authorization. It tells a border officer you were pre-screened at a consulate and are eligible to request entry in a particular classification. Once you are admitted, your right to stay and work comes from your immigration status, which runs on its own timeline shown on the I-94 or approval notice.
Your visa foil can expire while you are living and working legally in the United States, with no effect on your status. You only need a valid foil again if you leave the country and want to come back in. The reverse is also true: a valid foil in your passport does not guarantee admission. A CBP officer at the port of entry makes that call. The foil gets you to the door; the officer decides whether it opens.