--- kind: "section" citation: "22 C.F.R. § 41.26" title: "22" number: "41.26" heading: "Diplomatic visas." url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/22/41.26" --- # §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. - (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 passport that: - (i) Is issued by a competent authority that does not issue diplomatic passports and - (ii) **Has been designated by the Secretary as the equivalent of a diplomatic passport.** - (b) **Place of application.** With the exception of certain aliens in the United States issued nonimmigrant visas by the Department under the provisions of [§ 41.111(b)](/cfr/22/41.111.md?p=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.** A nonimmigrant alien who presents a diplomatic passport or its equivalent shall, if otherwise qualified, be eligible to receive a diplomatic visa if: - (1) The nonimmigrant alien is within one of the following categories, irrespective of the classification of the visa under [§ 41.12](/cfr/22/41.12.md): - (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 attaché and assistant attaché 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 foreign government proceeding to the United States on a temporary basis 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) through (xi)](#c-1-i..c-1-xi) 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)](#c-1-xii) and [(c)(1)(xiii)](#c-1-xiii) of this section; - (xvi) Diplomatic couriers proceeding to or through the United States in the performance of their official duties; or - (2) **The alien is classifiable as a G-4 and is accompanying any of 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 Nations 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; - (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) Members of the immediate family accompanying or following to join any principal nonimmigrant alien listed in [paragraphs (c)(2)(i) through (xii)](#c-2-i..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. ## Notes ### Amendments [52 FR 42597, Nov. 5, 1987; 53 FR 9111, Mar. 21, 1988, as amended at 86 FR 10456, Feb. 22, 2021] ### Authority Authority: 8 U.S.C. 1101; 1102; 1103, 1104; 1182; 1184; 1185 note (Section 7209 of Pub. L. 108-458, as amended by Section 546 of Pub. L. 109-295); 1201; 1258; 1323; 1361; 2651a. ### Source Source: 52 FR 42597, Nov. 5, 1987, unless otherwise noted. ### Amendments [52 FR 42597, Nov. 5, 1987; 53 FR 9111, Mar. 21, 1988, as amended at 86 FR 10456, Feb. 22, 2021]