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State and official visits to the United States are formal visits by the head of state (state visit) or chief of government (official visit) from one country to the United States, during which the president of the United States acts as official host of the visitor. State visits are considered to be the highest expression of friendly bilateral relations between the United States and a foreign state, and are in general characterized by an emphasis on official public ceremonies.

The first visit of a foreign state to the United States was the state visit of Hawaii in 1874, while the first visit of a still independent foreign state to the United States was the state visit of Brazil in 1881. Since then numerous emperors, kings, presidents, and prime ministers have been formally received by the president of the United States in Washington, DC. In addition to state and official visits, the United States also receives foreign dignitaries in official working visits and working visits, which are primarily functional trips that occur with less or no ceremony.

Terminology
State visits are visits to the United States led by a foreign head of state acting in his or her sovereign capacity. They are, therefore, described as a "visit of [name of state]". State visits can only occur on the invitation of the president of the United States, acting in his capacity as titular head of the United States of America. Official visits, in contrast, are usually visits by the chief of government of a foreign state. Like state visits, they can only occur on the invitation of the president of the United States, though are offered in the president's capacity as chief of the federal government of the United States. The visit of a crown prince may also be classified as an official visit. Both state and official visits generally consist of a four-day stay in Washington, DC by the visitor, during which a range of welcoming ceremonies are performed. They are often followed by a tour.

State visits to the United States are always reciprocated, at a later time, with a state visit by the United States. In addition, U.S. diplomatic policy is to host no more than one state visit from any single nation in a four-year period. Because of these rules, some visits of foreign states with executive presidents may be classified as official visits, instead of state visits.

There are, in addition, working visits and official working visits, which are of a largely functional nature and done to conduct business, such as negotiations, consultations, or treaty signings.

Private visits are visits of a head of state or chief of government to the United States for personal reasons, such as a holiday or for medical treatment.

History and purpose
Due, perhaps, to the geographic isolation of the United States, the first visit by a foreign head of state did not occur until nearly one hundred years after independence, when King Kalakaua of the Kingdom of Hawaii came to the U.S. during December of 1874. This was followed, two years later, with a visit by Brazil led by Emperor Dom Pedro II.

State and official visits receive significant press coverage and political attention and are, therefore, a powerful diplomatic symbol that signals either the friendly nature of the relationship between the United States and the visiting state, or the importance of the foreign state to the U.S. government by the willingness of the sitting president to expend domestic political capital in hosting it. A discussed 1995 state visit by China, for example, never materialized after the administration of Bill Clinton decided it was unwilling to face congressional criticism that was expected should such an invitation be offered. Instead, a working visit was held. At the same time, declining or cancelling an invitation to a state or official visit can be interpreted as a rebuke of the United States on the international stage. In 1986, for instance, Hassan II of Morocco canceled a visit to Washington. Though the Moroccan government cited the king's personal fatigue as the reason, the cancellation was widely perceived as an expression of irritation with the U.S.' criticism over Moroccan relations with Libya.

Ceremonial activities
A wide variety of ceremonial activities occur during visits to the United States. The specific order of occurrence will vary based on the visitor's itinerary and is determined in advance during pre-visit negotiations between protocol officials of the United States and the visiting state. However, the activities allowed and the form they take proceed generally according to a schedule that accounts for the visitor's rank and the nature of the visit.

Address to the Congress
The day following the state dinner, the visiting head of state or chief of government will often be invited to address a joint meeting of the Senate of the United States and the House of Representatives of the United States. As the parliamentary procedure for initiating a joint session is complex, a joint meeting is, instead, usually held. (No foreign head of state or chief of government has ever addressed a joint session of congress, however, in 1934 the French ambassador addressed a joint session to memorialize the centennial of the death of the Marquis de Lafayette.)



Arrival ceremony
For state and official visits, a formal arrival ceremony will typically be hosted by the president on the South Lawn of the White House the morning after the dignitary arrives in the United States. The arrival ceremony was only added to the program of the state visit in the 1940s. The Chief Usher of the White House is principally responsible for arrangements of the arrival ceremony.

The arrival ceremony is conducted by a civilian welcoming committee, as well as a large number of military personnel drawn from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard, the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard, and Alpha Company of the garrison of Marine Barracks Washington, and selected other personnel.

For official working visits, a different arrival ceremony will be held at the parade ground of the Pentagon, instead of the South Lawn of the White House. The presiding official of this form of arrival ceremony is the United States Secretary of Defense instead of the president.

Blair House
During state and official visits, the visitor will be invited to use the President's Guest House (also known as Blair House), a 119-room home across the street from the White House. During the residence of a foreign dignitary, the dignitary's official standard is displayed on the building's flagpole. In cases of dignitaries who do not have official standards, the respective nation's flag is displayed instead. On occasions where two or more foreign visitors of equal rank are visiting Washington, DC, neither are invited to stay at the President's Guest House. The policy is in place to avoid the perception of favoritism. Some visiting dignitaries with whom the sitting president has a personal relationship have been invited to stay in the guest quarters at the White House, a suite of rooms in the southeast corner of the second floor of that building that includes the Lincoln Bedroom and Queens' Bedroom, plus their adjoining sitting rooms, dressing rooms and bathrooms. These are separated from the president's apartments by a staircase landing. During the presidency of Bill Clinton, Queen Sonja and John Major both stayed in the White House guest quarters, instead of the President's Guest House.

Department of State luncheon
Official and official working visits, as well as some state visits led by an executive president, generally include a luncheon at Foggy Bottom, which will be jointly hosted by the Vice-President of the United States and the United States Secretary of State; the president of the United States does not attend. Luncheons typically follow the White House or Pentagon arrival ceremony and are held in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room. They are served in three courses.

Flight line ceremony
A visiting head of state or chief of government will typically arrive, via aircraft, at Joint Base Andrews. When the visitor's aircraft has completed taxiing, a ground crew will move air stairs into position at the aircraft's door and unroll a red carpet. A military cordon, consisting of an approximately equal number of personnel from the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard, and the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard will form, flanking either side of the red carpet. For visiting heads-of-state the cordon will consist of 21-personnel, for chiefs of government, nineteen. In front of the cordon, closer to the aircraft stairs, a welcoming committee will form in a line. The welcoming committee consists of the United States Chief of Protocol, the United States ambassador to the visiting state, the visiting state's ambassador to the United States, the commanding general of Joint Base Andrews, and two or three prominent personages designated by the Chief of Protocol. As the visitor walks down the air stairs, the U.S. Air Force Band performs "Arrival Fanfare Number One". At the bottom of the stairs, he or she will be greeted by an American schoolchild with a bouquet of flowers before being introduced to the welcoming committee by the chief of protocol. The national anthems of the visiting state and the United States will be performed prior to the visitor's departure, by car, to the President's Guest House (or other accommodations).

State dinner
A dinner at the White House is held in the evening after the White House arrival ceremony in the case of state and official visits. Dinners are appropriately referred to as state dinners whether or not they occur during a state or official visit; the name, in this case, refers to the rank of the host of the dinner (the president of the United States), not the visitor.

The dress code for state dinners is determined in advance by the White House Social Secretary in consultation with the Office of the First Lady of the United States. Black tie or mess dress is usually prescribed for state dinners during official visits, while state dinners during state visits may be either black tie or mess dress, or white tie with decorations or mess dress. The president of the United States has not customarily worn decorations, with some exceptions as in cases where he has been invested into an order of the visiting state. Where applicable, visitors may wear national costume instead of evening dress. Visitors from socialist states, including Nikita Kruschev and Hu Jintao, have, in the past, refused to wear evening dress.

Dinners are typically held in the State Dining Room. Those for which guests exceeding the capacity of the room have been invited may overflow into the adjoining Red Room. On some occasions, weather permitting, the dinner is held outdoors, such as during the official visit of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard in 1964 or the state visit of the United Kingdom in 1976.

Guests at White House state dinners are seated at ten-person round tables. The practice of using a large number of round tables, instead of one or a few long banquet tables, was initiated by Jacqueline Kennedy.

Return dinner
The evening following the state or official dinner, it is customary for the visitor to host a return dinner at the chancery of his or her embassy in Washington, DC. In general, during state visits the president and first lady will attend the return dinner. During official visits, only the Vice-President of the United States and his his wife will attend, though this custom is not one strictly observed and the president has attended return dinners during official visits, in addition to state visits.

Streetlining
Beginning the day before the arrival of the visitor, and continuing through their stay, lamp posts on Pennsylvania Avenue will be outfitted with the visiting state's flag, as well as that of the United States. The flag of the visiting state will also be displayed over the East Executive Avenue entrance to the Eisenhower Executive Building.

Cruise
In the past, state visits often included a cruise aboard the presidential yacht to Mount Vernon, where the visitor would be invited to enter the Washington family crypt and place a memorial wreath on George Washington's sarcophagus. Though the presidential yacht was decommissioned in 1976, such trips are still sometimes undertaken as part of state and tours. When it is determined a cruise should be included in a state visit, it is now generally undertaken on the Chief of Naval Operations' barge, or on a chartered vessel. The cruise is an opportunity for leaders to engage in frank discussion away from the distractions that often accompany visits. In 1992 Boris Yeltsin described his cruise on the Chief's Barge with George H.W. Bush: ... there was a wonderful pleasure trip on a boat on the river which lasted an hour and 15 minutes. And even during that trip we worked, and we discussed a lot of issues that we will continue to talk about and will raise again at the next meeting. But I find that a lot of the benefit of a meeting of this nature is the kind of discussion that we had, not just on that boat where we talked for an hour about worldwide problems but the discussions that we had upstairs when I had some private time with the President, private time in the Oval Office with him, the Secretary, and Brent Scowcroft.

Tour
After four days in Washington, D.C., a visiting dignitary on a state or official visit may sometimes undertake a tour that lasts as long as ten days.

In popular culture

 * In the second episode of the fourth season of the HBO television series Veep, the character of Selina Meyer hosts an official visit by the prime minister of Israel.