A visa is an endorsement in a passport allowing an individual to enter a country for purposes of travel or work. Business visas allow foreigners to enter and work in the United States. Often mistakenly referred to as GREEN CARDS because of their color, business visas are temporary nonimmigrant visas, while true green cards are for immigrants entering the country permanently based on having relatives in United States or due to EMPLOYMENT preferences. Visas and green cards are a confusing and ever-changing part of U.S. political and social policy. From an economic perspective, visas allow people with special skills and investments to enter and contribute to the U.S. LABOR FORCE, adding to the productive potential of the economic system. From a business perspective, work visas allow U.S.-based companies to utilize their personnel in the best capacity by bringing in specialty workers, transferring managers, and directing contact with trade partners. Work and investor visas include specialty-occupation (H-1B), intra-company transfer (L-1), treaty-trader (E-1), and investor visas (E-2). Specialty-occupation visas require documentation that the worker has special theoretical and practical knowledge and has completed required courses of higher education. The United States issues 115,000 specialty-occupation visas annually, all with a six-year maximum duration. Employers must attest to the specialty skills of immigrants for whom they are seeking work visas. In effect, H-1B workers are “tied” to their employer, much like indentured servants brought into the United States centuries ago. However, the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (2000) increased the speed with which H-1B workers can transfer from one U.S. employer to another without losing their visas. Intra-company visas are available for executive, managerial, or special-knowledge workers being transferred into the United States. The company must have employed the foreign worker for at least three years. These visas have a maximum length of seven years for executives and managers and five years for employees with specialized knowledge. Treaty-trader visas are available to individuals from countries with which the United States has a trade treaty (most of the world) and represent a firm doing “substantial trade” with the United States. These E-1 visas are available to executives or supervisory personnel. E-2 (investor) visas are available to individuals willing to put a substantial amount of CAPITAL at RISK in the United States. The INVESTMENT must earn more than what is required to support the investor and his or her family. These visas are renewable indefinitely. For example, if a citizen of Mexico starts or purchases a restaurant in the United States that creates more INCOME than is required to support him and his family, he is eligible for an investor visa. The law requires the investment be made before applying for the visa and that the capital comes from sources outside the United States. The NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA) created a special class of visas (TN) that are available to certain Canadian and Mexican professionals wishing to work temporarily in the United States. Article 16 of the NAFTA agreement defines and implements the immigration provisions of the agreement. Because the agreement was virtually identical to the UNITED STATES–CANADA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT, it had little impact on Canadian-U.S. business labor movement, but it significantly impacted U.S./Mexican business labor mobility. TN visas are available for North Americans with skills ranging from accounting to vocational counseling. Unlike many other work visas, the TN visa is relatively easily accessible and issued on an annual basis.