Congratulations—if you are reading this, chances are you are the proud holder (or soon-to-be-holder) of a shiny new US visa stamp! Or maybe you’re just curious—that’s fine too.

For those foreign nationals who have a visa stamp, it is crucial to understand what it is, what it does, and what everything on it means. This may seem straightforward, but given all the acronyms and abbreviations (not to mention occasional administrative errors), this can easily become confusing.