Visible-light-driven photocatalytic reactions have become one of hot research toptics in organic chemistry and catalytic chemistry since 2008. Among various photocatalytic reactions, the predominant tranistion-metal photocatalysts are those photosensitizers based on noble transition-metals, such as Ru(II) and Ir(III) as the central metal. However, this type of tranisition-metal photocatalysts has several drawbacks associated with their central metals including poor reserves in the earth, high prices and high toxicities. Recently, photocatalysts based on the earth-abundant copper(I) as the central metal have been continuously explored and gradually applied in photocatalytic reactions. In this regard, P/N-heteroleptic Cu(I)-photocatalyst- triggered photocatalytic reactions have specially received great attention and gained rapid development. Such Cu(I)- photocatalysts have advantages of abundant reserves, low prices and low toxicities related to their copper(I) central metal. These photocatalysts not only can replace Ru(II)- and Ir(III)-photocatalyts to trigger conventional photocatalytic reactions, but also can realize some photocatalytic reactions that are hard to be accomplished by Ru(II)- and Ir(III)-based photocatalysts, thus playing an important role in the highly efficient construction of molecular diversities. The recent progress in P/N-heteroleptic Cu(I)-photocatalyst-triggered visible-light-driven photocatalytic reactions is reviewed according to four catagories of different reaction mechanisms, namely, single electron transfer, bifunctional catalysis of Cu(I)-photocatalysts, copper/transition metal synergistic catalysis and energy transfer. At the end of this review, the problems and limitations in this field are summarized, and the future reasearch direction of this field is also prospected.