As many nonimmigrant visa applicants may already be aware, new visa application form DS-160 was introduced in January 2010 replacing the earlier Form DS-156; DS-157 and DS-158. We had reported this on January 8, 2010.

Since its introduction, the process to complete the Form DS-160 has been constantly streamlined. However, in the last week of July 2011 some major changes have been made to the content of this form. The form now takes in more detailed information.

Highlights of Changes

• More information about the type of passport (Diplomat / Regular / Official / etc) is collected;
• Telecode for name if any has also been included;
• The applicant(s) will have to provide information about his/her prior immigrant petition – this was available on the form DS-156; however, was excluded in the earlier version of DS-160;
• The current marital status has been updated to help the applicant depict his/her current status / relationship more accurately. The form also collects information about current and prior spouse(s) including date of marriage and termination of marriage;
• Additional questions have been included to gather more specific information under the Security and Background – this now has five parts and includes questions related to human trafficking and coercive transplantation of human organs;
• To make sure that the data is not lost, a pop-up window providing option to proceed by saving the application or continue without saving shows up every few minutes;
• As clients of Murthy Immigration Services are aware that the applicant needs to click “Sign and Submit” button, even if someone has assisted in completing the form; more prominence has been provided to this requirement and it is also indicated that non-compliance of this could lead to the application form not being accepted;
• Earlier version of DS 160 had frequent “Session Timed Out” and applicant has to start over from where they left – however, the present application as of this writing provides more time before session times out.

Conclusion

Above are some of the key new and additional information requested on the updated Form DS-160. As you are aware, most of the non-immigrant visa applicants are adjudicated only based on information provided in the DS 160 and at the interview.. We trust the new form will help the visa officer(s) to have more information about the applicant and his/her background while making a decision.

We at Murthy Immigration Services, we will continue to keep you updated on any further changes to the form DS-160 or the application process.

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