On this page below you will find all the information you need for your visa application

B1 visa holders can engage in the following activities:

• Negotiate contracts.
• Consult with business associates in the US.
• Settle estates.
• Attend conferences, educational, professional, or business events.

The benefit of the B1 visa is that you can develop business relationships and visit the US as many times as necessary for business. After your visa expires, you can always apply for another one. The US business visas do not have a cap, so there are no rules regarding how many visas can be issued per year.

The US has created US visitor visas to cover business and touristic purposes. Unlike the B1 visa, the B2 visa allows you to enter the US with the purpose of tourism, pleasure, or visiting friends and family.

If you are a citizen of one of the countries in the Visa Waiver Program, you do not need to obtain a US business visa. You can apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization System (ESTA) instead. With the ESTA program, you don’t have to go to the US consulate in person to get the business visa much faster.

Unless you have applied for an ESTA and have been denied, you must apply for this visa.

The US business visa eligibility criteria are not as strict as other visas, but you must fulfill them to qualify. Here are the criteria that you must meet to be able to get the B1 visa:

• That your intent for visiting the United States is business-related.
• You have enough finances to cover your stay in the United States.
• You intend to return to your home country as soon as your visa expires, and you do not intend to stay in the United States.

If you meet these criteria and prove your eligibility through valid documents in the application phase, you will be able to apply and get the B1 visa.

To apply for a B1 visa, you must go through these simple steps:

• Complete Form DS-160.
• Pay the B1 visa fees.
• Schedule your visa interview.
• Prepare your B1 visa documents file.
• Attend the interview.

Completing a DS 160 online application form is not a hard task. You should follow a few simple steps and pay attention to your answers, so you fill the DS 160 form online correctly, without making any mistakes.

Where to Fill Form DS 160?

First, you should know where to fill from DS 160. You can access it at the Consular Electronic Application Center website.

Documents You Need to Complete DS 160 Electronic Form

Secondly, collect a few documents, and keep them close to you while completing the application form. Since there are many questions about the information you may not know by heart, you will have to look at these documents when filling in the form.

• Your valid passport.
• Travel itinerary.
• Dates of every international trip you have made in your last five years, including to the US.
• Information on your current and previous education and work history.

Additionally, when applying for some particular US nonimmigrant visas, you may need to keep close to you some additional documents. These are:

• Students and Exchange Visitors (F, J, and M) – you will need your SEVIS ID and the address of the school/program at which you intend to study. This information should be on your I-20 or DS-2019 form.
• Petition-based Temporary Workers (H-1B, H-2, H-3, CW1, L, O, P, R, E2C) – You will need a copy of your I-129 form.
• Other Temporary Workers – you will need to have ready information on your future employer, including their address.

After completing the first two pages of the application form, you will then start to answer your application questions. The questions are grouped into four categories:

• Personal questions.
• Family information.
• Work/education/training information.
• Security-related questions.
• Following, find all of the DS 160 application form questions:

Personal questions

• Name & surname.
• Full name in the native alphabet.
• Marital Status.
• Date and place of birth.
• Country of origin.
• Do you have any other nationality other than the one indicated?
• Are you a permanent resident in any other country aside from your country of origin?
• Home Address.
• Phone number – work and personal.
• Email address.
• Passport information: Number, date of place of issuance, date of expiration.
• Purpose of the trip to the US (you may have to specify that).
• Do you have specific travel plans? If yes, you will need to give the intended date of arrival, length, address where you will stay, and whether someone will accompany you.
• Information on previous trips to the US: If you have ever been to the US, ever held a US visa, or were rejected from getting a visa or refused entry to the US.
• US point of information, if applicable – their relationship to you and home address.

Family information

• Parents’ given full names.
• Do you have any relatives in the US?
• Your spouse’s name, date, and place of birth.

Work/education/training information

• Primary occupation, address, start date, monthly salary in a local currency, and briefly describe your duties.
• Were you previously employed?
• Have you attended any educational institutions at a secondary level or above?
• Which languages do you speak?
• Have you traveled within the last five years?
• Have you belonged to, contributed to, or worked for any professional, social, or charitable organization?
• Do you have any specialized skills or training, such as firearms, explosives, nuclear, biological, or chemical experience?
• Have you ever served in the military?
• Have you ever served in, been a member of, or been involved with a paramilitary unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, guerrilla group, or insurgent organization?

Security-related questions

• Do you have a communicable disease of public health significance? Communicable diseases of public significance include chancroid, gonorrhea, granuloma inguinale, infectious leprosy, lymphogranuloma venereum, infectious stage syphilis, active tuberculosis, and others diseases as determined by the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Do you have a mental or physical disorder that poses or is likely to pose a threat to yourself or others’ safety or welfare?
• Are you or have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?
• Have you ever been arrested or convicted for any offense or crime, even though you are subject to a pardon, amnesty, or other similar action? This includes all arrests or detentions, including those at the border and by Customs and Border Patrol.
• Have you ever violated, or engaged in a conspiracy to violate, any law relating to controlled substances?
• Are you coming to the United States to engage in prostitution or unlawful commercialized vice, or have you been engaged in prostitution or procuring prostitutes within the past 10 years?
• Have you ever been involved in, or do you seek to engage in money laundering?
• Have you ever committed or conspired to commit a human trafficking offense in the United States or outside the United States?
• Have you ever knowingly aided, abetted, assisted, or colluded with an individual who has committed or conspired to commit a severe human trafficking offense in the United States or outside the United States?
• Are you the spouse, son, or daughter of an individual who has committed or conspired to commit a human trafficking offense in the United States or outside the United States, and has you, within the last five years, knowingly benefited from the trafficking activities?
• Are you the spouse, son, or daughter of an individual who has been identified by the President of the United States as a person who plays a significant role in a severe form of trafficking in persons, and has you, within the last five years, knowingly benefited from the trafficking activities?
• Are you the spouse, son, or daughter of an individual who has violated any controlled substance trafficking law and has knowingly benefited from the trafficking activities in the past five years?
• Do you seek to engage in espionage, sabotage, export control violations, or any other illegal activity while in the United States?
• Do you seek to engage in terrorist activities while in the United States, or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities?
• Have you ever, or do you intend, to provide financial assistance or other support to terrorists or terrorist organizations?
• Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization?
• Have you ever ordered, incited, committed, assisted, or otherwise participated in genocide?
• Have you ever committed, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in torture?
• Have you committed, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in extrajudicial killings, political killings, or other acts of violence?
• Have you ever engaged in the recruitment or the use of child soldiers?
• Have you, while serving as a government official, been responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom?
• Have you ever been directly involved in establishing or enforcement of population controls: forcing a woman to undergo an abortion against her free choice or a man or a woman to undergo sterilization against his or her free will?
• Have you ever been directly involved in the coercive transplantation of human organs or bodily tissue?
• Have you ever sought to obtain or assist others in obtaining a visa, entry into the United States, or any other United States immigration benefit by fraud, willful misrepresentation, or other unlawful means?
• Have you ever withheld custody of a U.S. citizen child outside the United States from a person granted legal custody by a U.S. court?
• Have you voted in the United States in violation of any law or regulation?
• Have you ever renounced United States citizenship to avoid taxation?

The US visa photo must:

• The US visa photo size should be 2 x 2 inches (51 x 51 mm). The photo should be positioned in a way that the head is between 1 and 1 3/8 inches (22 mm and 35 mm) or 50% and 69% of the image’s total height from the bottom of your chin to the top of the head.
• In color.
• Taken within the last 6 months.
• With no shadows.
• With a plain white background.
• You must face the camera in the photo.
• Have a neutral expression.
• Have both eyes open.
• You cannot wear a uniform. However, the clothes that they wear normally every day. Religious clothing that the person wears daily is allowed. The head must not be covered, and the hairline has to be visible unless the person wears a headdress for religious purposes. The headdress must not cover the face.
• Without any worn electronic devices. Unless you need a hearing device or something similar.
• You must not wear eyeglasses except for medical reasons. If, for example, the person has had eye surgery lately, they need a doctor’s statement that must be provided to justify them. If eyeglasses have to be worn, the frames must not cover the eyes, and there must be no glare or shadows in the face from the glasses.

No glasses

After you successfully upload the photo, you will receive the location where you should submit your application for a US nonimmigrant visa. Memorize the location, or even better, write it somewhere.

You will then need to sign the application electronically. You can do so by clicking on the “Sign and Submit Application.”

Thus, you will complete the first step of your application for a US nonimmigrant visa.

Once you are done, you will be presented with a confirmation page, which you need to print and bring with you on the day of your US visa interview. Without DS-160 form confirmation, you will be unable to attend your interview.

The DS 160 form is valid for 30 days from the day you start filling it in. Therefore, if you start filling in the form on January 1, the DS 160 form expiration date will be January 31. Make sure you complete the form on time, or else you will need to start from the beginning.

What is DS 160 confirmation number?

The DS 160 confirmation number is the number you receive once you complete the form, sign, and submit it. The number serves as a confirmation that you have completed this step.

Can DS 160 form be edited after submission?

DS 160 form correction after submission is not possible once you have signed and submitted it. Yet, you can make a DS 160 form edit in two ways.

• If you submitted the form within the last 30 days, you can retrieve your application at the Consular Electronic Application Center system and edit it.
• The other way is two fill in a completely new application. You must bring confirmation pages from both the original and revised Form DS-160 on the day of your appointment.

How to retrieve DS 160 form after submission?

You will be able to retrieve your DS 160 form visa application within 30 days since the day you signed and submitted your application. Follow the steps below:

1. Log into the Consular Electronic Application Center system.
2. Enter the application identification number.
3. Select “Retrieve an Application.”
4. Create a new application, which will cause the entire prior application to appear.
5. Edit the information as needed.
6. Re-submit the application.

Should I print the whole application?

No, you do not need to print the whole application form. You only need to print the DS 160 Form confirmation page, without which you would be unable to submit your application file or attend the visa interview.