The State Department has switched on a longer version of Form DS-260, the online immigrant visa application that every green card applicant processing through a U.S. consulate has to complete. The biggest change: applicants now have to list 15 years of foreign travel instead of 5, trip by trip. The new questions began showing up in the Consular Electronic Application Center in late September. On September 29 the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) published a practice alert saying its members were seeing “several new and expanded questions on travel history, spouses/partners, prior passports, and nationalities,” along with technical problems caused by the new questions.
What the revised DS-260 asks for
Based on the State Department’s Paperwork Reduction Act filing and law-firm reports from applicants filling out the live form (Wildes & Weinberg, October 1), the expanded sections include:
- International travel history for 15 years, not 5. For each trip: the countries or regions and cities visited, arrival dates, length of stay, and who paid. The State Department’s published wording is: “Have you traveled to any countries/regions, other than the United States, within the last fifteen years?”
- Other passports and nationalities, including passports or nationalities held or given up during the previous 15 years.
- Civil and domestic partners, on top of the spouse information the form already asked for.
- Nationality of spouses, partners and children.
- Siblings: name, date of birth and nationality.
The State Department went through the formal approval process for the revision. It published a 60-day notice on July 9, 2025 (90 FR 30543), then a 30-day notice on November 19, 2025 (FR Doc. 2025-20231, OMB Control No. 1405-0185). In that filing it acknowledged that the proposed form “included modified language requesting 15 years of address history rather than five.” It also turned down AILA’s request to let applicants mark old street addresses as “unknown,” saying past addresses are used “for fraud prevention and enhanced vetting.” The Department put the average time to complete the form at 155 minutes across an estimated 460,000 applicants a year.
Who this affects
The change applies to anyone getting an immigrant visa abroad rather than adjusting status inside the U.S. That includes approved EB-2 NIW, EB-1 and EB-3 beneficiaries going through consular processing, family-based immigrants, and their derivative spouses and children. Each derivative files a separate DS-260, so a family of four now has to rebuild 15 years of travel four times.
AILA’s alert also points to a process problem. Its members said the new questions caused technical problems in the online form and raised “concerns about the notice and comment process,” apparently because the live version differs from what the public saw during the comment period. So far the State Department has not published a separate announcement of the rollout date.
What to do now
- Start reconstructing your travel record early. Old passports, airline account histories, credit-card statements and employer travel records are the most reliable sources for trips back to about 2011.
- Be consistent. Consular officers compare the DS-260 against your earlier DS-160 nonimmigrant applications, your I-94 history and your petition record. A trip you listed before but leave off now can lead to questions at the interview or a 221(g) refusal.
- If you already submitted a DS-260 and your case is waiting for an interview, you can’t edit a submitted DS-260 yourself. Ask your attorney, or the National Visa Center through its Public Inquiry Form, whether the form should be unlocked and updated. Either way, bring a complete travel list to the interview.
- Allow more time. Plan for the form to take hours rather than minutes, especially if you travel often or have held more than one nationality.
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Source: AILA Practice Alert (Doc. No. 26092606) / Federal Register