Tag Archives: DS-260 mistakes

The famous Form DS-260 (immigrant visa form) is the form where many people who are looking for immigrant visa must fill. Among those people are people who are the DV lottery winners, who are supposed to fill this particular form.

What is DS-260 form, immigrant visa form? What are the key information or key things you need to pay attention when you’re filling this form?

This form is in different categories or different areas.

• Personal information

In order to fill this form and compete well, you need to have good information, the correct information about your educational level and work experience.

If you don’t have high school, you depend on work experience, then you have to put work experience in a very explanatory way so that you’ll be able to get the visa without any particular problem.

But while you’re filling this form, in order to complete this form, you need to have the address of where you’ll be staying in the United States of America. Many people don’t get the opportunity to have what is called “a host”.

So make sure that you find different ways to get the host, to get a person where you’re going to stay with, family or maybe a friend, whatever you are from your countryman that will be able to help you. There’s the address where you’ll be staying in the United States of America.

Apart from that one, other things will be very important. You have to fill them. Have the address where you’ve been staying, the name of your parents, your name, where you go to school, criminal record, what your intention in the United States, etc.

Once you submit that form, you’ll not be able to make any change. But if you want to make any change, you have to ask KCC, Kentucky Consular Center, to unlock your case number.

To unlock, you don’t need to give the reason. You put on the subject your name, your case number, and your date of birth, and then you ask them to unlock your case number, your DS-260, and want to make changes.

When requesting for unlocking of your DS-260, you don’t need to give the reason for that, maybe that you want to change because child is born or because someone died in the family, he’s not able to come. You don’t need to give all this explanation for that particular case.

Note: Once the interview schedule has been done, you cannot make any changes in your DS-260 form anymore. That is the time when the U.S Embassy will be able to have access to your DS-260. But if you go and make any change before the U.S embassy schedule interview date, U.S Embassy will not see that one.

Those edits, those changes you’re going to put are not in the final copy until the final submission and the visa interview schedule date has been set, then embassy will have that access.

Question: Can I edit or change information/anything or details of my DS-260, immigrant visa form, after submitting? Will the U.S Embassy see those changes?

If you are the DV lottery winner, when you submit your DS-260 form, it goes to KCC (Kentucky Council Center). Once you send the information, your form is locked, that means you cannot make any particular change.

You can make changes only if you ask KCC to unlock the DS-260. The request is very simple. You put your case number, you put your birthday and your name. On the body you just write them, “Please Unlock My DS-260 I want to make changes”.

You don’t need to explain the reason of that particular change. Once you make the unlock, you can make any particular change. The changes, the edits you do, it’s between you and the DS-260. Those changes will not be appearing or the U.S Embassy will not see all those when you are going to make those changes.

But once the DS-260 is fully locked and you are given the visa scheduled date, the second notification letter, that is when the U.S Embassy in the country were you are supposed to do the interview will have the access to that edited DS-260 form. That’s when they will see the final DS-260 with everything there.

They will not know whether you remove the name, you changed the name, you were single, you say you are married, etc, they will only see the final version of everything.

Yes, you can make changes with that particular procedures, but don’t worry they’re not going to see those information/changes at the U.S embassy.

Question: If you have a family, do you fill more DS-260 forms for your derivatives?

Let say for example, you are a family of six or more, does it mean that you will have to fill six DS-260 forms, or is it just one DS-260 forms and all derivatives will fall within the same?

When you go to fill the form DS-260, you fill as a main applicant, principal applicant. They will ask you a question, are you married? You will choose “Yes”. You put the information for your wife.

Are you coming with you a spouse, husband or wife? Do you have kids? You put their names there.

When you finished filling everything on your case. Then on the same page you signed in, there is an option called “Add Derivative”.

You click Add Derivative, then it comes another page. That page you are going to fill the information, the name, date of birth, full information of your son or your daughter, you will fill it there. After filling all the information, everything, then you add another derivative.

Within one DS-260, you have the option to click another derivative, if another page comes in, all will be done in a column.

So under the principal applicant, it will be derivative one, derivative two, derivative three, derivative four, derivative five, etc. As the principal applicant, you’re going to add all derivative.

If you don’t create their own page within your DS-260 form, it means they are not going to be given the visa. Because they will use your case number and everything.

You sign in one, but inside you are going to create extra pages, to add derivative in that particular sense.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

Let discuss four (4) important things that you might have forgotten or you might forget while filling the DS-260 form. This is very important and very crucial to the success of your DV process.

4 Important Things You Might Easily Forget When Filling The DS-260 Form

1. Medical Section

The first one is regarding the medical section. There is a part on the DS-260 form that regards the medical, and specifically that part that requests you or asks you whether you have any form of documentation to prove that you have received the vaccines as per the United States law.

On that very part where you are supposed to check either a yes or no, regarding whether you have the documentation to prove whether you have received all the vaccinations. On that section, you are supposed to select yes.

You might ask, but I’ve not received the vaccinations, why should I fill a yes?

First of all, whether or not you have received those vaccinations as per the U.S government law, you are supposed to select yes. If you select no, do it at your own risk, but select yes. Below are reasons:

(i) This question applies during the interview when you are before the consulate or the officer interviewing you. At that time, this question applies at that time. That is when you will be required to present the proof of the vaccination, and that proof of vaccination, you get it from your medical examination.

Remember, you get your medical examinations prior to the interview, which means you will have received all the necessary vaccinations that you don’t have. If you don’t have any of the vaccination or some of the vaccinations, then you will get them administered to you during the medical examination.

So when selecting these, select a yes. Don’t forget this during filling the DS-260 form.

2. Social Security Number

Another thing that people mess up when filling or they might forget during filling the DS-260 form is on that part that talks on the Social Security Number information towards the end of the DS-260 form.

That section that requests you if you can give authorization to the United States government, that is the Homeland Security Department, or the Social Security Administration to access your information on the DS-260 form for them to assign you a Social Security Number.

In that section, you are supposed to check either a yes or no. You might choose to deny them access, or you might select to allow them the access. That is the best way, giving them access to your information for them to assign you a social security number, as well as that social security card.

So when filling that part, ensure you check on the yes button. Select yes that you authorize the access of your information to the Home Land Security Department and the Social Security Administration and any other government office, for them to assign you the Social Security Number.

When you select that option, which is a yes, that means when you land in the United States, you will not be required to do another application for the Social Security Number.

If you select a no, then upon landing in the United States, you will be required to do an application for the Social Security Number with the United States.

You’ll go to the Social Security Administration Office and do an application. So why go through this process? You can save yourself from this whole process by choosing Yes on the DS-260 form to allow those administrations to access your information.

3. Creating DS-260 forms for your derivatives

Remember, as a principal applicant, you fill the DS-260 form and you include all the information, including those of your derivatives. Once you have finished up with your DS-260 form as the principal applicant, you need to create other DS-260 forms for your derivatives for each one of them.

If you have a spouse, you create her DS-260 form. If you have kids, you create for each one of them. Many people forget doing this. Remember to create DS-260 forms for each and every one in your application.

4. Printing Confirmation pages for each and every member in your application

Another thing that people forget is to print their confirmation pages for each and every member in the application, i.e your derivatives.

So upon finishing and submitting your form DS-260, together with those of your derivatives, if you have, then you need to print the confirmation pages for each one of you.

These confirmation pages are important during the medical examination, as well as during the interview. You will be required to present these confirmation pages for each and every one in your application.

Those are just four of the things that you might forget when filling the DS-260 form.

I hope this information is very useful to you.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

If you have any questions about the DV lottery, please contact an immigration professional/officer or a licensed attorney.

DS-260 Expiration and Submission Deadline:

• Does the DS-260 form expire?
• Is there a deadline of submitting my DS-260 form?
• After winning the DV Lottery, when should you fill out the visa form, DS-260?

Those three obvious questions are going to be answered in this guide, read and get the knowledge.

Does the DS-260 form expire?

Yes, the DS-260 form expires. Just as with the other forms by the Immigration Department, other forms by the USCIS, they do expire. But let’s understand what expiry means on these documents.

Every batch of documents or forms that are released by the USCIS or any other department of the United States that needs to collect information from individuals, all those forms have an expiration date.

So their batch numbers always change, and when one batch or serial number comes to the end of when it was intended to serve, then it needs a replacement with a newer version. When it comes to this, then the end date for which those forms were to serve is called the expiration date.

If you take the example of DS-260 form, the DS-260 form normally changes over time, and when we are shifting from one DS-260 form to the next one, the next version with some updates, then we say that the form has reached its expiration.

You’ll see the notification that the DS-260 form will expire at such a date. That’s what we call the expiration. So when you see an expiration date of a particular form, e.g form I-134, form DS-260, form DS-5535, etc, that means that the end of that batch number or that serial number has come and a newer version, normally with some few updates, is going to be rolled out.

Does the expiration date affect your DS-260 form that you have filled and you have submitted?

Definitely no.

When you are filling the DS-260 form, the only form that you get, is the form that is currently serving, even if it has only one day to expiry, that form that you’re filling is the one that is valid at that moment, and there’s no problem with that.

It is the form that you are supposed to fill. Once you fill it and submit it, even if a new version is enrolled after the expiration of the one that was serving your details, they are safe. They are not affected in any way. You are not required to fill a newer DS-260 form. It won’t be possible. So it does not affect your DS-260 form at all.

Is there a deadline for submitting the DS-260 form?

The answer is an absolute yes. The deadline for submitting the DS-260 form is normally 30th September of that fiscal year.

For example, if you are a DV selectee for the DV Lottery 2023, then the deadline for submitting the DS-260 form is the end of the fiscal year 2023, and that is 30th September 2023.

If you are a DV Lottery 2024 winner, then you have until the end of the fiscal year 2024 and that is 30th September 2024.

Normally the end of the fiscal year for a certain DV program is the end of all the interviews regarding that DV program.

So if you are waiting to submit the DS-260 form at the end of the fiscal year, then that’s a very perfect lateness and that means you cannot be scheduled for the interview. Even your DS 260 form wouldn’t be processed. There’s no time for that.

Therefore, if you are a DV winner, the best practice is to submit your DS-260 form as early as you can.

After winning the DV Lottery, when should you fill out the visa form, DS-260?

After checking the results, you find out you are the winner of the diversity of the lottery. The question is, after knowing that you are the winner, when should you go and fill the famous DS-260 form (visa form)? How long should you wait until you go to fill that particular form? Should you feel right away? Should you wait a little bit longer? Does the U.S government through Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) process the visa interviews on first come, first serve basis?

If you find out you have won the diversity of the lottery, you can fill the visa form as soon as possible. But there are some of the things you need to know because you might come to regret later.

You must fill the form for the visa and submit only if you have everything required to have to complete the form. Make sure you have all the important documents.

If you are planning to get married, get married first before you complete the DS-260. Let’s say if you were the winner and you are pregnant or you are dependent of someone and you are pregnant and the child is going to be born in June or July, don’t rush to fill the submit form. You can fill the form, but you don’t need to submit yet. Wait until the child is born, get the passport, and just going to submit all at once.

Once you fill the form and submit, and for sure you know there are some of the information you don’t have, then you need to request for KCC to unlock the DS-260 so that you can fill that particular information to make it complete.

Sometimes KCC can take even seven weeks or nine weeks to just go and unlock your document. Sometimes the stress of waiting for them to unlock the DS-260 is higher than just if you could wait for one more month to go to submit.

Make sure that you have everything before you go to apply, before you go to fill the DS-260. Make sure everything is ready before filling and submitting.

I hope this guide on DS-260 Expiration and Submission Deadline have answered those questions above.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

Does unlocking the DS-260 form cause you harm or delay on your DV Process? Does it cause any delay in the processing of your case? This is what has been answered in this guide.

Contrary to what information you get regarding unlocking your DS-260 form, unlocking your DS-260 form once you’ve realized you had made some serious mistakes, is ultimately an important step to take and it is very crucial for your case.

Those that says that unlocking your DS-260, you harm your chances or you cause delay to your cost and therefore you should not unlock, they are actually not correct.

There are errors that you might do on your DS-260 form that will end up ruining your chances. They will lead to your visa denial.

For such type of errors, the only way around them, the only remedy to them, is to write to KCC and request them to unlock your DS-260, specifying the specific DS-260, whether it is yours or your derivatives, and update it to the correct information.

Can that process cause you any harm or will it cause any delay?

The answer on the highest side is definite no, and on the lowest side is yes. What does that mean?

Majority of the corrections made on the DS-260 forms, they never cause any delay. For example, you are a DV Lottery 2023 winner and you submitted your DS-260 around May of last year, and later on you discovered that you had error in entering some critical information.

In around August you requested the form to be unlocked and it was unlocked and you updated the DS-260 and submitted. Then the interviews began in the month of October last year. If you take such a scenario, and let’s say your case number is around 10000AF, or 5000AS, if you take that case, there will be no delay.

What does it mean? If you have a case number that is not yet near to getting current and then you request unlocking and you update the information, there will be no delay at all. On this other side, if your case number is current and at that time of which you cannot tell, KCC is about to transfer your details to the embassy for the interview scheduling, at that time of which you cannot tell, and then you request unlocking of your DS-260.

Then definitely they will hold back, until you do the changes for them to hand over the case to the embassy. That is obvious. But those, as you can tell, are very rare cases.

So people saying that you are causing a harm to your case by you unlocking, then they are not correct.

On the other hand too, what will be the benefit of you not updating your DS-260, yet you realized you had a grievous mistake and you end up being denied the visa, yet you had the chances of unlocking?

What if, even if you request unlocking and the case is delayed for some time and then you get to the interview and you are issued with the visa because you had corrected the errors?

Or what if it might cause any delay? Which one of these will you take?

For the first scenario, you realize you have made a mistake, you decide not to change anything at all, you end up in the interview with the errors and because of the errors you get visa denial.

For the second scenario, you realize that you have made some mistakes, you write to KCC to unlock your case, you do the necessary changes or amendments and you submit your DS-260 form and if it happens, then it delays.

Then you go to your interview and simply because you corrected the errors, you get your visa approved. Which of those would you take?

That’s why the idea that people are giving you that you should not unlock for you not to cause any delay is not correct.

What would you benefit if you lose your chance because you did not update the information?

In conclusion

A bigger percentage of those cases that are corrected, they are never delayed, and only a small percentage get some kind of delay. It is better for you to even get a delay and correct the errors and get your visa approved, then not to correct the errors in fear of your case getting delayed, and at the end of it, you get denied the visa.

So, if you realize that you have made any mistake, don’t hesitate to request unlocking for you to update the information, to be on the safe side.

The mistakes that should cause you to request unlock, they should be those critical mistakes. For example, if you made errors in your names or some other personal related information, you need to change them.

Thank you for reading this guide. I hope it gets you at the right time and it clears your doubt and your worries.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

If you have any questions about the DV lottery, please contact an immigration professional/officer or a licensed attorney.

What next after Submitting DS-260 form? This is another guide of interest to diversity visa applicants and it has to do with what comes next after you have submitted your DS-260.

Everyone is aware that after you get to elected in the Diversity Visa Lottery, the next thing to do is to fill out and submit your DS-260. But remember that you should consider your circumstances and not rush into submitting the form.

After submitting your DS-260 form, what do you do next?

In recent years after submitting your DS-260, you were also required to submit a list of supporting documents to KCC. But that is not always the case.

Depending on what the State Department decides for a particular year, you may or may not be requested to submit supporting documents to KCC.

So if submitting supporting documents to KCC is a requirement that applies during your program year, then after submitting your DS-260, you will have to submit your supporting documents.

But in case submitting supporting documents to KCC is not a requirement during your program year, then after submitting your DS-260, your next line of action will be to turn your attention to the Visa Bulletin.

Remember, after the Diversity Visa Lottery results are released in the month of May and you see that you were selected, the Visa Bulletin that is published in that month of May does not concern interviews for your program.

The one that is published in the month of June does not concern interviews for your program. Neither does the one that is published in the month of July.

It is from the month of August that the Vista Bulletin is going to show information regarding interviews for your program and that is when you have to begin to follow the Visa Bulletin, if you are selected from the results published in the month of May.

It is the Visa Bulletin that will tell you when your diversity visa interview is supposed to be scheduled.

When you see from the Visa Bulletin that your case number has become current, then it means that there is a Visa number available for you and that is when your diversity visa interview is actually supposed to be scheduled.

How do you know when your case number is current?

Every month the Visa Bulletin shows a number for each region. That number is referred to as the cut-off number for that region, for that month.

So when you see that the cut-off number for your region for a given month is higher than your case number, then your case number is current for that month and it means that it is in that month that you are supposed to be scheduled for your diversity Visa interview.

That is for cases that submit their DS-260 before their case number becomes current in the Visa Bulletin.

There are cases when the applicants have not yet submitted their DS-260 but the Visa Bulletin shows that their case number has become current. In such a case, there will be a Visa number available for such applicants, but their Visa interview will not be scheduled because they have not yet met the necessary requirement, which is the submission of their DS-260 and in cases where they are required to submit documents, the submission of their documents.

For clear understanding, if you submit your DS-260 and possibly your documents before your case number becomes current, then you will have to wait for your case number to become current, in order for you to be scheduled for interview.

For example, your case number is 7200 in the Africa region, and you check the Visa Bulletin in the month of August. You will realize that there’s information for the month of September and the month of October.

The month of September concerns the previous program. So it is the information that relates to the month of October, which is the first information concerning your program that you are going to change your attention to.

You see that the cut-off number that applies to the region of Africa in the month of October is 2500. It means that you cannot be scheduled in the month of October because the cut of number is lower than your case number.

So you will have to wait until the Visa Bulletin is published in the month of September, when it will be showing information for both October and November.

Also, you look at the information that pertains to the month of November. If the cut-off number for the Africa region is, e.g 5000, you will still not expect to be scheduled in the month of November. You will have to follow again for the month of December.

The Visa Bulletin that will show information for the month of December will be released in the month of October.

So let us say that the cut-off number that is shown for the month of December is 8000. Because that cut-off number is higher than your case number of 7200. It means that it is in the month of December that you can expect to be scheduled for interview.

On the other hand, if you do not submit and your case number becomes current, you will have to submit before you can expect to be scheduled for interview.

For example:

You saw that your case number will be current for the month of December, but up until December you have not yet submitted your DS-260. You submit the form after December.

When you submit after December, that is when the form will be processed and your interview is expected to be scheduled along with the next batch of interviews because your case number has been current since the month of December.

So that is how things are after you submit your DS-260.

Note: For the past few years, things have not worked in that way, maybe due to the effects of COVID-19.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

If you have any questions about the DV lottery, please contact an immigration professional/officer or a licensed attorney.

How to Correct Mistake on DS-260 After Submitting: There is this question, can I update my DS-260 once I have filled it up and submitted? Or What if I realized that I made mistakes, can I request unblocking for me to update my DS-260?

First of all, once you’ve completed filling the DS-260 and you have submitted it, the system will show the DS-260 as completed. When the form status show completed, it is locked for editing. You cannot edit it.

But remember, an accurately filled DS-260 form is very essential for the success of your case.

Back to this question, Can I update my DS-260 form once I have submitted it? The answer is yes, you can update it. But how?

How to Correct Mistake on DS-260 After Submitting

If you need to change anything in your DS-260 form, you’ll have to email the KCC asking them to unlock your DS-260, so that you can make the changes.

Below is a sample email you can use it to request KCC to unlock the principals DS-260:

The KCC email address is as shown above is KCCDV@state.gov. You can see on the main body of the email, is requesting the KCC to unlock the DS-260, meaning the principal applicant’s DS-260.

The subject of the mail as shown, will read “Unlock Request”. In the body of the email, you will have to be specific, you will include your names (that is the first name, the middle name and the last name).

You will have to indicate your case number, indicate your date of birth, the American format.

Then you will have to tell the KCC which DS-260 form they are to unlock for you. This sample shows the principal applicant unlocking. This email will request the KCC to unlock the part of the principal applicant for review, to unlock the DS-260 for the derivatives.

As you can see in the body of the email, you will have to specify to KCC which derivatives DS-260 form you want them to unlock for you for revision.

There is no limitation to the number of times you can ask KCC to unlock your DS-260 form for revision.

Note that the interviewing Consular Officer will be able to know the number of changes that you did. But you have not to worry about that because it not affect anything.

Also note that you cannot request unlocking once your interview has been scheduled, because at this point, it is only the embassy that can unlock your DS-260 form.

Will the unlocking of the DS-260 leads to the delay of the scheduling of my interview?

If your case is going to be current in many months to come, then there’s no concern about delay. But if your case will be current in the near future, then the answer may be no or possibly yes in some cases.

For example, if you are requesting the unlock to add the details of a newborn, then this will not cause any delay.

But if you are requesting unlock for you to add maybe your spouse, since this is a grown up, an adult, and he or she has to go through some background checks, then this means there’ll be some delay.

Another example that may cause some delay is when you request unlocking for you to add travel details. If you are adding travel details of a country that has cases with terrorism, definitely they’ll have to do some background checks of the travels. So this can cause some delay.

Also, if your case is going to be current soon and then request unlocking for you to revise your dates of birth or name, there might be some possible delays.

Some minor changes like changing the address in the United States or the work experience might not cause any delay. But remember, it’s better to get some delay, but have a correctly filled up DS-260 form because it will determine your success at the embassy.

So request unlocking for you to make the necessary changes. Do not consider delays. Another point to note is that requesting for unlocking towards the end of the processing year.

Let’s say for example, you request for unlocking in the month of July, then it might be impossible for the unlocking. This is because the KCC will not be having enough time to schedule for your interview.

Therefore, it is important for you to request the KCC to unlock your DS-260 form as soon as possible. As early as you realize there is mistake, make sure you request for unlocking for you to update your DS-260.

That’s all about unblocking and updating your DS-260.

I hope the information was useful to you.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

If you have any questions about the DV lottery, please contact an immigration professional/officer or a licensed attorney.