For more than 60 years, the International Visitor Program has brought foreign leaders and specialists to the United States for firsthand exposure to their professional counterparts and U.S. society. The emphasis of the program is to increase mutual understanding through communication at the personal and professional levels. It is described by U.S. Ambassadors as one of the most effective foreign policy tools of American diplomacy.

The International Visitor Program brings 4,500 participants to the United States from all over the world each year to meet and confer with their professional counterparts and to experience the U.S. firsthand. The visitors, who are current or potential leaders in government, politics, the media, education, and other fields, are selected by American Officials overseas. More than 200 current and former Heads of State, 1,500 cabinet-level ministers, and many other distinguished world leaders in government and the private sector have participated in the International Visitor Program. A few of the Program's distinguished alumni include such individuals as Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Giscard D'Estaing, Indira Gandhi, Julius Nyerere, Oscar Arias, and F.W. deKlerk.

Each visitor spends approximately 22 days in the country and visits 4 or 5 different states and regions of the U.S. Nearly five hundred visitors come to Oregon each year, and frequently highlight Oregon as the most valuable part of their national program.

The International Visitor Program operates under authority of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (Fulbright-Hays Act).