State visits to the United States

Both state and official visits generally consist of a four-day stay in Washington by the visitor, during which a range of welcoming ceremonies are performed.

[4][5][6][a] This was followed, two years later, with a visit by Emperor Dom Pedro II of the Empire of Brazil, again received by Grant.

A discussed 1995 state visit by China, for example, never materialized after the administration of Bill Clinton decided it was unwilling to face the criticism from Congress and others that such an invitation would prompt.

[9][10] President Clinton extended a private invitation to Jiang Zemin for a less formal meeting at the White House, but the Chinese government (represented by Foreign Minister Qian Qichen) declined, "based not on any substantive disagreement, but on China's insistence that Mr. Jiang deserved a formal state.

"[11] Jiang did meet with Clinton at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in October 1995, but there was no Chinese state visit to the U.S. until 1997.

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.

A visiting head of state or chief of government will typically arrive, via aircraft, at Joint Base Andrews.

At the bottom of the stairs, the visitor will be greeted by an American schoolchild with a bouquet of flowers before being introduced to the welcoming committee by the chief of protocol.

[17] 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.

[17] On occasions where two or more foreign visitors of equal rank are visiting Washington, neither are invited to stay at the President's Guest House.

Luncheons typically follow the White House or Pentagon arrival ceremony and are held in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room.

[5] Visitors from socialist states, including Nikita Khrushchev and Hu Jintao, have, in the past, refused to wear evening dress.

[25] Traditionally, tables have been segregated by gender, however, during the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, married couples were permitted to be seated together.

(No foreign head of state or chief of government has ever addressed a joint session of Congress, although in 1934 French ambassador André Lefebvre de La Boulaye addressed a joint session to memorialize the centennial of the death of the Marquis de Lafayette.

In 1944, General Charles de Gaulle, then the leader of the Free French Forces, traveled to the United States.

The first trip to Monticello by a visiting foreign head of state was made by Indonesian Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir in September 1947.

[39] In 1992, Boris Yeltsin described his cruise on the Ceremonial Barge Chesapeake with George H. W. Bush:[17][40] ... there was a wonderful pleasure trip on a boat on the river which lasted an hour and 15 minutes.

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.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.