(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.

(b) Visa format. A machine-readable visa shall be in the format designated by the Department, and contain, at a minimum, the following data:

(1) Full name of the immigrant;

(2) Visa symbol;

(3) Location of the visa issuing office;

(4) Passport number;

(5) The registration number (A-number) assigned to the immigrant;

(6) Sex;

(7) Date of birth;

(8) Nationality;

(9) Date of issuance;

(10) Date of expiration;

(11) Visa control number;

(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;

(13) A digitized photo of the immigrant; and

(14) Machine-readable data that can be processed by an immigration officer at a POE.

(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.

[84 FR 35299, July 23, 2019]