How to Complete and Submit Form DS-260: Immigrant Visa Application

To complete Form DS-260, the Immigrant Visa Electronic Application, log in to the Department of State’s Consular Electronic Application Center at ceac.state.gov, enter the personal, family, employment, social media, and security information the form requests, and submit it under penalty of perjury before your consular interview.¹ The form itself costs nothing to fill out online, though the immigrant visa application fee, paid separately during National Visa Center (NVC) processing, runs from $205 to $345 depending on your visa category.²

Logging In to CEAC

You cannot open the DS-260 until USCIS approves your immigrant petition and the NVC sends you two numbers: an NVC case number and a separate Invoice ID.³ You need both every time you log in, so keep them somewhere you can find them. If you never received them or lost them, contact the NVC before trying to access the system.

Diversity Visa lottery selectees use a different login. Instead of an NVC case number and Invoice ID, DV applicants sign in with the diversity visa case number from the selection notification at dvprogram.state.gov, plus the principal applicant’s date of birth.⁴

Saving Your Progress

The DS-260 is long. You do not need to finish it in one sitting. Every page has a Save button at the bottom, and you should click it before you step away, because CEAC logs you out after roughly 20 minutes of inactivity and any unsaved data disappears.⁴ When you return, log back in and choose View/Edit from the immigrant visa section. Each applicant’s status shows as Not Started, Incomplete, or Submitted. Click Edit next to the incomplete application to pick up where you left off.

What to Have in Front of You Before You Start

Gather your passport, any prior U.S. visas, employment records, and a list of addresses where you have lived. Having these in front of you keeps you from guessing at dates or misspelling employer names, and it makes the longer sections move faster. All entries must use English characters, even where the original names or addresses are in another script.

Working Through the Form

Personal and Family Details

Enter your full legal name, including any aliases, prior surnames, or maiden names. The form asks for every address where you have lived for six months or longer since you turned 16, in chronological order. Consular officers use that history to decide which police certificates you need and to run security checks, so precision matters.

Family information takes up a large portion of the form. You provide names, dates of birth, and birthplaces for your parents, your current and former spouses, and all of your children regardless of age or whether they are immigrating with you. You also list every prior trip to the United States, including arrival dates and length of stay. Do not leave out a past visit or a prior visa denial. A false statement on a visa application can make you permanently inadmissible for fraud or misrepresentation.⁵

Employment and Education

List your current and previous employers, along with the names and locations of every secondary school and higher education institution you attended. Consular officers cross-check this against security databases. If you held informal or self-employed positions, list them rather than leaving a gap in your work history.

Social Media Identifiers

The form displays a list of specific social media platforms and asks you to disclose every username or handle you have used on those platforms in the past five years. The requirement applies to all immigrant visa applicants and covers only public-facing identifiers; you do not provide passwords.⁶ The platforms listed include Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, VKontakte, Sina Weibo, and others. Omitting an account you actively used can be treated as a material misrepresentation.

Security and Health Questions

The final section covers medical conditions, criminal history, drug use, and involvement in political organizations or activities that could raise national security concerns. These questions map to the grounds of inadmissibility in federal immigration law. Answer every question truthfully. A “yes” answer does not automatically disqualify you, because consular officers evaluate the specifics, but a dishonest “no” that contradicts law enforcement records almost always leads to denial and can trigger a permanent bar.

Social Security Number and U.S. Address

Near the end, the DS-260 asks whether you want the Social Security Administration to assign you a Social Security Number and mail you a card. Answering “Yes” here, along with “Yes” to the consent-to-disclosure question, authorizes the State Department to share your information with SSA so the card can be mailed after you arrive in the United States.⁷

The form also asks for a U.S. mailing address. USCIS uses this address to mail your physical green card, so make sure the person at that address can receive mail on your behalf if you have not yet secured housing. A wrong address means an undeliverable green card.

Submitting the Form

After reviewing every page, you reach the Sign and Submit screen. Clicking the submission button certifies under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate, and the form locks the moment you submit.⁴ You cannot edit it on your own after that point.

Submission generates a confirmation page with a unique barcode. Print it using the Print Confirmation button rather than printing your screen. You must bring the printed confirmation page to your visa interview, because the barcode is how the consular officer pulls up your electronic file.⁸

Fixing a Mistake After You Submit

If you realize you made an error after submitting, you cannot correct it yourself. You need to contact the office handling your case and request that the application be unlocked: the NVC for standard immigrant visa cases, the Kentucky Consular Center for Diversity Visa cases, or the specific U.S. embassy where you plan to interview.⁴ Once they unlock it, you can log back in, make the correction, and resubmit.

The Application Fee

The immigrant visa application processing fee is paid per person, is non-refundable, and depends on your visa category:

Family-based cases (I-130, I-600, or I-800 petition): $325
Employment-based cases (I-140 or I-526 petition): $345
Diversity Visa selectees: $330
Other immigrant visas, including I-360 self-petitioners, special immigrants, and returning residents: $205
Certain Iraqi and Afghan special immigrant visas: no fee

If your case requires a domestically reviewed Affidavit of Support, that review adds $120.² These fees are paid during NVC processing, before you submit the DS-260 and supporting documents.

Where the DS-260 Fits in the Larger Process

The DS-260 is one step in a longer sequence. Alongside the form, you and any joint sponsor must collect civil documents, police certificates, certified English translations, and financial evidence (typically Form I-864, Affidavit of Support), and every applicant must complete a medical exam with a panel physician approved by the embassy where the interview will take place.⁹ All of this is uploaded to the CEAC portal, and the NVC will not schedule your interview until it has reviewed the complete package. Filling out the DS-260 correctly is what gets you through that door; it does not, by itself, complete the immigrant visa case.

1
U.S. Department of State. Consular Electronic Application Center
2
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services
3
U.S. Department of State. CEAC FAQs
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U.S. Department of State. DS-260 Immigrant Visa Electronic Application
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
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U.S. Department of State. FAQs on Social Media Collection
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Social Security Administration. What You Need to Do – Social Security Numbers and Immigrant Visas
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U.S. Department of State. Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration – Confirmation Page
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U.S. Department of State. Immigrant Visa Process