These are some notes from the recent US B2 visa application process that I aided for my parents who are Indian citizens.
Process
- DS-160 forms
- Online form: Since my parents already had Indian passports, the first step for me was to fill out a DS-160 Nonimmigrant Application form online for each of them.
- Visa application center: Need to right away decide which US consulate in India you would make an appointment at to create the form.
- Name: I ensured that what I added in the DS-160 matched the passport details precisely. When passport only had a surname (and no given name), I entered FNU as the first name in the DS-160. This is the guidance provided in the DS-160 documentation too.
- Visa type: I chose Tourism/Medical Treatment (B2) as the type of visa.
- Travel dates: Chose No for specific travel plans. Only provided a intended date that was few months away and said that intended stay was 3 months.
- Address and expense: Provided my US home address as their stay in US and that I would pay for the trip.
- Confirmation: After filling out the DS-160 forms, I got the PDF files of both the confirmation and the application.
- Visa interview booking
- Visit the US Visa application site for India to book a visa interview slot. This is the hardest step.
- From the past I know that reusing my own login email address here can cause issues, since I use that login for my own work visa bookings. So I created a new email address and used it as login on the site for my parents booking.
- I chose the option to make a B2 visa appointment and provided the names, passport details and DS-160 number.
- Fees: After the above steps, the website shows information on how to make payment of the visa fees from a bank in India. The website generates a specific Unique Beneficiary Account Number that is associated with your application. Take note of that number, the IFSC Code for the bank and the Beneficiary Name. Use that information to make the payment in INR from an Indian bank. Once the payment is completed, it took 1-2 days for the receipt number to be automatically filled in on the website for me.
- Booking a slot: After the above receipt number is filled in for you, the website now allows you to choose a booking slot at a VAC (first) and then at the consulate (second). The VAC visit is for them to take your photo and fingerprinting. The consulate visit is for the interview. Once this is chosen, the website gives an appointment form that needs to be printed out and required for entry into VAC and consulate.
- Rescheduling: Booking can be changed while waiting for the interview dates. The website restricts certain number of accesses in a day and only allows a certain number of rescheduling (IIRC it is 4).
- Changes to DS-160 after booking
- This became an important problem for me since some information in the DS-160 had changed between the time I created the DS-160 and the actual interview date.
- First task is to create a new DS-160, using the old one as the base, with the updated or fixed information.
- Primary applicant: The website allowed the DS-160 number to be updated, so I could do that using the online interface.
- Dependent applicants: The website did not have an interface to update the DS-160 for dependents! I had to email support-india@ustraveldocs.com from the same email address used for login. They updated the DS-160 for me in 2 days.
- Documents for interview
- I found a comprehensive list of letters and documents required for the interview in the RedBus2US website (see References).
- Documents that I prepared for my parents and sent by Fedex:
- Visa officer cover letter
- Invitation letter
- Letter from my company
- DS-160 confirmations
- US consulate appointment
- Bank verification letters: Chase required me to book an appointment at one of their branches and I got the letter right away when I visited the branch. Marcus chat support helped me get this letter, but it took 10 days to arrive by mail.
- W2 forms of all years
- Last 3 pay stubs
- Last 6 bank statements from bank websites
- My passport with visa stamp page
- My I-94
- My work visa I-797
- Documents that my parents prepared:
- Property documents
- Bank statements with enough balance
- Pension / employment benefits letters
- Visa interview
- This was relatively painless at both VAC and US Consulate.
- The consulate officer did ask a few questions in English to get basic information about me, my parents and their intention to travel.
- Passports with visa stamp
- I had chosen delivery of passport at a collection center. I got an email a week after the interview that the passports have been collected from the consulate and sent to the collection center.
- Visiting the collection center a couple days after that, the passports were ready with visas of a 10-year validity.
Timeline
- Feb 2021: Created DS-160 forms and made the visa fee payments so parents could visit. But US consulates in India remained steadfastly closed to new B2 applications after a COVID shutdown for 3 years!
- Nov 2022: B2 applications opened in Indian consulates. Got an appointment slot only for March 2023.
- Mar 2023: Interview at US consulate completed and passports with visa received.
References