[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 22, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 22CFR41.26]

[Page 183-185]
 
                       TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS
 
                     CHAPTER I--DEPARTMENT OF STATE
 
PART 41_VISAS: DOCUMENTATION OF NONIMMIGRANTS UNDER THE IMMIGRATION 
AND NATIONALITY ACT, AS AMENDED--Table of Contents
 
                 Subpart C_Foreign Government Officials
 
Sec. 41.26  Diplomatic visas.

    (a) Definitions. (1) Diplomatic passport means a national passport 
bearing that title and issued by a competent authority of a foreign 
government.

[[Page 184]]

    (2) Diplomatic visa means any nonimmigrant visa, regardless of 
classification, which bears that title and is issued in accordance with 
the regulations of this section.
    (3) Equivalent of a diplomatic passport means a national passport, 
issued by a competent authority of a foreign government which does not 
issue diplomatic passports to its career diplomatic and consular 
officers, indicating the career diplomatic or consular status of the 
bearer.
    (b) Place of application. With the exception of certain aliens in 
the United States issued nonimmigrant visas by the Department under the 
provisions of Sec. 41.111(b), application for a diplomatic visa shall 
be made at a diplomatic mission or at a consular office authorized to 
issue diplomatic visas, regardless of the nationality or residence of 
the applicant.
    (c) Classes of aliens eligible to receive diplomatic visas. (1) A 
nonimmigrant alien who is in possession of a diplomatic passport or its 
equivalent shall, if otherwise qualified, be eligible to receive a 
diplomatic visa irrespective of the classification of the visa under 
Sec. 41.12 if within one of the following categories:
    (i) Heads of states and their alternates;
    (ii) Members of a reigning royal family;
    (iii) Governors-general, governors, high commissioners, and similar 
high administrative or executive officers of a territorial unit, and 
their alternates;
    (iv) Cabinet ministers and their assistants holding executive or 
administrative positions not inferior to that of the head of a 
departmental division, and their alternates;
    (v) Presiding officers of chambers of national legislative bodies;
    (vi) Justices of the highest national court of a foreign country;
    (vii) Ambassadors, public ministers, other officers of the 
diplomatic service and consular officers of career;
    (viii) Military officers holding a rank not inferior to that of a 
brigadier general in the United States Army or Air Force and Naval 
officers holding a rank not inferior to that of a rear admiral in the 
United States Navy;
    (ix) Military, naval, air and other attache and assistant attache 
assigned to a foreign diplomatic mission;
    (x) Officers of foreign-government delegations to international 
organizations so designated by Executive Order;
    (xi) Officers of foreign-government delegations to, and officers of, 
international bodies of an official nature, other than international 
organizations so designated by Executive Order;
    (xii) Officers of a diplomatic mission of a temporary character 
proceeding to or through the United States in the performance of their 
official duties;
    (xiii) Officers of foreign-government delegations proceeding to or 
from a specific international conference of an official nature;
    (xiv) Members of the immediate family of a principal alien who is 
within one of the classes described in paragraphs (c)(1)(i) to 
(c)(1)(xi) inclusive, of this section;
    (xv) Members of the immediate family accompanying or following to 
join the principal alien who is within one of the classes described in 
paragraphs (c)(1)(xii) and (c)(1)(xiii) of this section;
    (xvi) Diplomatic couriers proceeding to or through the United States 
in the performance of their official duties.
    (2) Aliens Classifiable G-4, who are otherwise qualified, are 
eligible to receive a diplomatic visa if accompanying these officers:
    (i) The Secretary General of the United Nations;
    (ii) An Under Secretary General of the United Nations;
    (iii) An Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations;
    (iv) The Administrator or the Deputy Administrator of the United 
Nations Development Program;
    (v) An Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development 
Program;
    (vi) The Executive Director of the:
    (A) United Nation's Children's Fund;
    (B) United Nations Institute for Training and Research;
    (C) United Nations Industrial Development Organization;
    (vii) The Executive Secretary of the:
    (A) United Nations Economic Commission for Africa;
    (B) United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East;

[[Page 185]]

    (C) United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America;
    (D) United Nations Economic Commission for Europe;
    (viii) The Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on 
Trade and Development;
    (ix) The Director General of the Latin American Institute for 
Economic and Social Planning;
    (x) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees;
    (xi) The United Nations Commissioner for Technical Cooperation;
    (xii) The Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and 
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East;
    (xiii) The spouse or child of any nonimmigrant alien listed in 
paragraphs (c)(2)(i) through (c)(2)(xii) of this section.
    (3) Other individual aliens or classes of aliens are eligible to 
receive diplomatic visas upon authorization of the Department, the Chief 
of a U.S. Diplomatic Mission, the Deputy Chief of Mission, the Counselor 
for Consular Affairs or the principal officer of a consular post not 
under the jurisdiction of a diplomatic mission.

[52 FR 42597, Nov. 5, 1987; 53 FR 9111, Mar. 21, 1988]