How to Complete and Submit the DS-160 Child Visitor Visa Application

To apply for a U.S. visitor visa for your child, you complete a DS-160 online nonimmigrant visa application in the child’s name at ceac.state.gov, upload a compliant photo, submit and sign the form electronically, pay the $185 visa application fee, and schedule an interview at the U.S. embassy or consulate you selected. The form is the same one adults use — there is no separate child version — but a few pieces work differently when the applicant is a minor.

Who Fills It Out and Who Signs

A parent or another adult can fill out the DS-160 on a child’s behalf. The application is still submitted in the child’s name, with the child’s biographical details, passport information, and travel plans. When you reach the certification screen, federal rules require the applicant to sign and submit their own application, and someone else can help complete it but the applicant has to be the one who clicks “Sign Application.”¹ For a young child who cannot do this themselves, the parent completes that step for them. The certification is made under penalty of perjury, and fraud or misuse of visa documents is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1546.² Answer every question truthfully — a false answer can produce a permanent finding of inadmissibility for fraud or willful misrepresentation, which bars future U.S. visas.³

Starting the Application

Go to ceac.state.gov/genniv, choose the embassy or consulate where the child will interview, enter the CAPTCHA, and click “Start an Application.”¹ An Application ID appears in the upper-right corner. Write it down. You need it every time you come back to the form, and if you lose it you can retrieve it by supplying the first five letters of the child’s surname, the child’s year of birth, and the answer to the security question you set at the start.⁴

Save your work often. The session times out after 20 minutes of inactivity, and unsaved data disappears when it does.¹ Every page has a “Save” button; use it before you stop to look up a passport number or check a date.

What to Gather Before You Start

Federal regulations require every nonimmigrant visa applicant, including a child, to submit a DS-160 electronically.⁵ Have these ready before you begin:

The child’s passport: number, issuance date, expiration date, and issuing authority. It generally must be valid for at least six months beyond the intended stay, though citizens of certain countries are exempt.⁶
The child’s travel history: every country visited in the past five years, plus dates of the last five U.S. trips if any.
Education history: names and addresses of the schools the child has attended. For a preschool-age child with no formal schooling, leave the section as instructed by the form’s prompts.
Parent information: the form asks for both parents’ names and dates of birth.
Travel itinerary: planned arrival and departure dates, the physical U.S. address where the child will stay (a hotel, host’s home, or family member’s residence — not a P.O. box), and a U.S. point of contact who can verify the visit.
Social media accounts: any platform names and usernames the child has used in the past five years, selected from the form’s dropdown. If the child has no accounts, indicate that.⁷

For a child visiting relatives, the U.S. point of contact is usually the family member the child will stay with — you will need their full name, phone number, email address, and U.S. address.

Photo Requirements for a Child

The DS-160 requires an uploaded digital photo. The file must be a JPEG between 600×600 and 1200×1200 pixels, at 240 KB or smaller. The background must be plain white or off-white with no shadows. The child needs to face the camera directly, with a neutral expression and both eyes open, and the head from top of hair to bottom of chin should fill 50 to 69 percent of the image height.⁸

Getting a compliant photo of a young child is the part parents most often struggle with. No one else can be visible in the frame, so holding the child on your lap will fail. Lay a very young infant on a plain white sheet and photograph from directly above, or prop the child in a white car seat draped with a white blanket so no straps or patterns show. Eyeglasses are not allowed, with a narrow exception for a documented medical need supported by a signed statement from a medical professional.⁹ Head coverings are permitted for religious or medical reasons if they do not obscure the face. If the upload fails, your confirmation page will display an “X” where the photo belongs, and you should bring a printed photo meeting the same specifications to the interview.¹⁰

Reviewing and Submitting

Before signing, the system lets you review every answer. Do it carefully — the small errors that surface at the interview usually come from this step being rushed. When you are satisfied, sign and submit. You will get a confirmation page with a barcode and the Application ID. Print it clearly so the barcode is scannable, and save a digital copy. You must bring the confirmation page to the interview; without it, the consulate may not be able to pull up the child’s electronic file.¹⁰

If you spot a mistake after submitting, you can complete a new DS-160 and bring both confirmation pages to the interview so the consular officer can see what changed.¹⁰ Contact the consulate about whether you need a new appointment.

Paying the Fee

A child’s B visitor visa is a non-petition-based category, so the Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee is $185. The fee is nonrefundable, paid through the appointment website for your embassy or consulate using the DS-160 confirmation number. The receipt is valid for 365 days; if the child does not interview within that window, the fee is forfeited.¹¹

Some nationalities also owe a reciprocity fee, which is only collected if the visa is approved. The amount varies by country and visa type. Check the State Department’s reciprocity tables at travel.state.gov for your child’s country of citizenship.¹²

Does the Child Have to Attend the Interview?

Yes, in nearly all cases. As of October 1, 2025, the Department of State narrowed interview waiver eligibility significantly. Children under 14 previously could often skip the interview; that carve-out is gone. The only routine exception is renewing a B1/B2 visitor visa within 12 months of the prior visa’s expiration, where the earlier visa was issued for full validity and the applicant was at least 18 when it was issued.¹³ A child applying for a first visitor visa will need to appear in person.

Schedule the interview through the embassy or consulate’s appointment system once the DS-160 is submitted and the MRV fee is paid. Wait times vary from days to several months depending on the post.

What to Bring to the Child’s Interview

Bring the following on interview day:¹⁴

The child’s passport, valid for at least six months beyond the planned stay unless the country is exempt.
The printed DS-160 confirmation page with a scannable barcode.
The MRV fee payment receipt.
A printed photo if the digital upload failed.

For a child visitor, also bring documents that explain who the child is traveling with, why they are going, and what pulls them back home. That typically includes the child’s birth certificate showing parental relationships, both parents’ passports or IDs, and a notarized consent letter from any non-traveling parent authorizing the trip. If a parent will accompany the child, bring proof of the parent’s own U.S. visa or citizenship. If the child is traveling to visit a specific relative or host, bring an invitation letter and evidence of that person’s status in the United States.

For ties to home, bring proof of the child’s school enrollment and a letter from the school confirming the return date, plus documentation of the family’s ties abroad — the parents’ employment, housing, and other children remaining in the home country. A child cannot show income or property, so the case for return rests on the family’s roots. Consular officers evaluate an applicant based on their own ties, not on assurances from U.S. friends or family.¹⁴

After the Interview

Most decisions are made at the interview window. If approved, the consulate keeps the child’s passport for several business days to print and affix the visa. Do not buy travel tickets before the passport is returned.

The most common denial is under Section 214(b), which means the officer was not convinced the child intends to leave the United States after the visit. Federal law presumes every nonimmigrant applicant is an intending immigrant, and the burden of proving otherwise is on the applicant.¹⁵ For a child, this often turns on whether the family unit as a whole looks rooted at home. A 214(b) refusal is not permanent; you can reapply, but you will pay the MRV fee again, and reapplying without stronger evidence rarely changes the outcome.

1
Consular Electronic Application Center. Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application (DS-160)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 1546 – Fraud and Misuse of Visas, Permits, and Other Documents
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Overview of Fraud and Willful Misrepresentation
4
Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC). Retrieve an Application ID
5
eCFR. 22 CFR 41.103 – Filing an Application
6
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Exemption of the Six-Month Passport Validity Rule
7
U.S. Department of State. Frequently Asked Questions on Social Media Identifiers in the DS-160 and DS-260
8
U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
9
U.S. Department of State. Photo Requirements
10
U.S. Department of State. DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions
11
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services
12
U.S. Department of State. U.S. Visa Reciprocity and Civil Documents by Country
13
U.S. Department of State. Interview Waiver Update September 18, 2025
14
U.S. Department of State. Visitor Visa
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 U.S.C. 1184 – Admission of Nonimmigrants