Last reviewed:
Holding More Than One U.S. Visa
People end up here for three different reasons: they already hold a valid visitor visa and are applying for a student one, they hold two passports, or they have just been told a visa in their passport will be cancelled. The Foreign Affairs Manual answers all three, and the answers are more specific than the folklore.
This page explains what the rules are and where they come from. It is not legal advice.
Everything below is from 9 FAM 403.9-2(C) (CT:VISA-1991; 05-24-2024), read on 21 September 2026.
Two of the same class: not allowed, and one gets cancelled
An applicant is not permitted to possess more than one valid visa of the same classification in the same type of passport (i.e., tourist, official, or diplomatic) at the same time. You should physically cancel such visas whenever you encounter them.
Note the second half, which is the part worth knowing before it happens to you:
You may defer to the applicant's choice of which visa you cancel when circumstances permit.
So if you are issued a new B-1/B-2 while an old one is still valid, the older one is not quietly ignored — it is physically cancelled, and you may be allowed to say which. That is worth raising at the window rather than discovering afterwards.
The rule is scoped to the same classification in the same type of passport. Tourist, official and diplomatic passports are different types.
Different classes for different trips: expressly permitted
If an applicant desires to travel to the United States on different occasions and the principal purpose of entry will not be the same each time, you should issue the applicant separate visas suitable to each purpose of entry. (For example, C-1 and D and B-2 and F.)
So holding a B-2 and an F-1 at once is normal, not suspicious — provided they are for different trips.
The limit is doing it to switch activity mid-stay:
two visas may not be issued concurrently to an applicant who contemplates changing the principal activity after admission without departing from the United States and making a new entry for a different purpose.
In other words: enter as a visitor, leave, come back as a student — fine. Enter as a visitor intending to become a student without leaving — that is what the rule blocks. Crewmembers are the stated exception.
Each visa carries its own fee, with named exceptions
You should collect a separate MRV fee for each visa issued, except when issuing any combination of NIVs on one MRV foil (e.g., B-1/B-2 or C-1/D)…
So a B-1/B-2 is one visa on one foil and one fee — it is not two visas. The other exceptions the FAM names:
- A B-1/B-2 and a C-1/D issued simultaneously to facilitate crewmember entry, for sea and air crew
- Cuban nationals who apply for a B-1 and a B-2 at the same time
A reciprocity fee may also apply per visa. On what these fees are, see the DS-160 visa fee and what a U.S. visa costs in total.
Visas can also be placed in separate travel documents where that makes sense — the FAM's example is a crewmember holding a D visa in a seaman's book and a B visa in a passport, because the D visa is valid only in connection with service on a vessel.
If you hold two nationalities
A dual (or multiple) national applicant who possesses a passport for each country of nationality is permitted to have a visa issued in each passport, if the visas are of different classification.
The condition is the same one as above — different classification, not the same one twice.
One specific rule attaches to treaty investor and trader visas: E-1 and E-2 visas must be issued in the passport of the treaty country, unless the applicant is a derivative who does not hold treaty-country nationality.
Frequently asked questions
Can I have two valid U.S. visas at the same time?
Yes, if they are different classifications — for example a B-2 and an F-1. Two of the same classification in the same type of passport is not permitted, and one will be physically cancelled.
I am getting a new visitor visa and my old one is still valid. What happens?
The older one is physically cancelled. The FAM says an officer may defer to your choice of which one is cancelled where circumstances permit, so it is worth asking.
Can I get a student visa while holding a visitor visa?
Yes — those are different classifications, and the FAM directs officers to issue separate visas where the purpose of each trip differs.
Can I enter as a visitor and then switch to student without leaving?
That is the situation the rule is written against: two visas may not be issued concurrently to someone who contemplates changing the principal activity after admission without departing and re-entering.
Is a B-1/B-2 two visas?
No. It is one visa on one foil, and one MRV fee.
I have two passports. Can I have a visa in each?
Yes, if the visas are of different classification. E-1 and E-2 visas must go in the treaty country's passport, unless you are a derivative without that nationality.
Official sources
- 9 FAM 403.9 — NIV issuances, read 21 September 2026; concurrent visas are at 403.9-2(C)
- Country reciprocity schedules, for the fees and validity that attach to each classification