{"data":{"id":"us/22-cfr-42.73","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"22 CFR 42.73","heading":"Procedure in issuing visas.","body":"(a) Evidence of visa. An immigrant visa shall be evidenced by a physical visa or by an electronic visa located in the Department's records. The appropriate symbol as prescribed in § 42.11, showing the classification of the alien, shall be entered on the visa.\n(b) Visa format. A machine-readable visa shall be in the format designated by the Department, and contain, at a minimum, the following data:\n(1) Full name of the immigrant;\n(2) Visa symbol;\n(3) Location of the visa issuing office;\n(4) Passport number;\n(5) The registration number (A-number) assigned to the immigrant;\n(6) Sex;\n(7) Date of birth;\n(8) Nationality;\n(9) Date of issuance;\n(10) Date of expiration;\n(11) Visa control number;\n(12) Any annotations entered to reflect waivers or other information useful to an immigration officer at a port of entry (POE) upon the immigrant's application for admission to the United States;\n(13) A digitized photo of the immigrant; and\n(14) Machine-readable data that can be processed by an immigration officer at a POE.\n(c) Disposition of supporting documents. Post shall, wherever possible, return original supporting documents furnished by the alien. Duplicate copies may be retained in the consular system, as required or necessary.","path":["Title 22—Foreign Relations","CHAPTER I—DEPARTMENT OF STATE","SUBCHAPTER E—VISAS","PART 42—VISAS: DOCUMENTATION OF IMMIGRANTS UNDER THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT, AS AMENDED","Subpart H—Issuance of Immigrant Visas"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-22.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:49Z","sha256":"888295aa4e512d3a10f22bd5ce63d2beda09421451595238a38f403fc7f261c2","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/22-cfr-42.72","next":"us/22-cfr-42.74"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}