Department of State Announces New DS 160 Electronic Nonimmigrant Visa Application

The DOS liaison committee provides the following information about the new DS-160
nonimmigrant visa form announced by final rule on April 29, 2008. DS-160 is a big step
forward for DOS. The current nonimmigrant visa form, DS-156, is filled out on the DOS
web site, but the government system only generates a bar code containing certain fields
of data when the user prints it, and the government site does not electronically collect or
retain the data entered in the form. The applicant presents the printed form at visa
interview, and the bar code is scanned, which completes those data fields in the DOS
Consular Consolidated Database (CCD), avoiding re-keying by posts and allowing
electronic storing and searching by data field.

With the DS-160, a user fills out DS-160 and actually submits the data online. The data
will go into a government database, ostensibly CCD, as a nonimmigrant visa application.
The DS-160 is a "smart" form, in that the data the user provides in particular fields affects
what further sets of data fields are presented to the applicant for completion. Where the
form is implemented (Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey so far), it must be presented and
completed electronically. This represents a commitment by DOS to requiring electronic
customer interface in nonimmigrant visa applications. Happily, an applicant or attorney
can complete the form in draft and save it to an electronic file on his or her own
computer, forward it to the other person to review (by uploading it to view with DOS'
system), and then submit it. The rule states that the applicant himself or herself must
actually click the "submit" button, which is an electronic signature. The DOS system
does not collect or retain draft data.

Form DS-160 encompasses data fields for DS-156, DS-156E, DS-156K, DS-156V, DS-
157 and DS-158, and thus requires quite an array of information, and we can expect the
immigration case service and forms vendors to work expeditiously to try to arrange
upload capability.

The data from DS-160 will be perfected by the collection of biometrics and, if necessary
(and it is usually necessary), personal interview. DOS is also experimenting with off-site
biometrics collection in privately contracted facilities quite similar to USCIS Application
Support Centers, and in fact DOS may use the same name for their facilities. One goal is
to reduce physical traffic of applicants at the actual consular posts. Questions toward the
end of the DS-160 obviously are designed to support interview waiver decisions (same
visa as before, same post, etc.). DOS has stated that it does not expect the electronic visa
application to facilitate return of the old E, H, I, L, O, and P revalidation processes, or
U.S. biometrics collection, anytime in the foreseeable future.

The DS-156 will still be acceptable while the DOS rolls out the DS-160 over time. To
date DOS has been testing the DS-160 as a pilot in two posts in Mexico (Nuevo Laredo
and Monterrey) and nowhere else.