DS-160

[crashfirepm53]

Is the new 160 online form now being used in Manilla or still the 156 and 157 forms? I ask because my fiances cousin is at that point now. When they call the embassy yesterday they were told that no packet will be mailed to her and she can get the forms of the internet and they have appointments available from Sept. 02 thru the 15th. He was told the old forms are needed.
Now on the embassy website for Manilla, there is a DS-160 info tab with a powerpoint type slides. There is states that after May 24th,2010 all visa applications will require the new 160 form. Now that seems clear to me but I've read on forums that the 160 is not in use there for K-1 and K-3 visas and recent applicants stated they were told to and did use the 156 and 157 forms.

[Ray]

Form DS-160 is for tourist/business visas, not for K visas (at least not at this time). Manila is only using the DS-160 to replace the EVAF form.

For K visas, continue to use the old paper forms (DS-156, DS-157, DS-156K).

Ray

[william3rd]

 

[crashfirepm53]

Thanks Ray. I still find that they aren't mailing any packets to the fiance anymore. I haven't seen that anywhere but I'll do some searching tonight.

[Ray]

You can download the entire fiancee visa packet from the embassy's Web site so why sit around waiting for the mail? She can download it, print it out, and get a jump on the process.

Ray

[Capstone]

For anyone needing to fill out the new online DS-160 be forewarned - it is really buggy.  I filled one out for my sister in law's tourist visa several months ago and encountered a lot of problems with it. The system will timeout randomly & frequently even though it says that it will time out only after 20 minutes of inactivity. My advice to anyone that may need to fill one out is to first print out a sample copy of the form and make sure that you have all the information that you need for it prior to starting on it so that you can enter everything as quickly as possible. Also be sure to save every single page before moving on to the next page - otherwise if it times out on you, you will lose all your previously entered information. Maybe they fixed all the bugs in it by now but it was definitely not user friendly several months ago.

[robert angel]

Re:

>>You can download the entire fiancee visa packet from the embassy's Web site so why sit around waiting for the mail? She can download it, print it out, and get a jump on the process.

Ray<<

OK, Ray--this time I really have to call you out as having to be wrong--what you're saying sounds like COMMON SENSE and we're talking about the US GOVT here. It just can't be!!

[Capstone]

Just to follow up on the previous warning that I gave about using the online DS-160 form - it is still a piece of crap. I filled out one for my father in law and one for my mother in law last night and had an even worse experience than the first time that I used that form. For those needing to use the DS-160 here are some helpful hints:

1. Print a sample copy of the form and gather all the information for each question before you start the application and have it all on hand so that you can quickly answer each question and save the page - the system is only suppose to time out after 20 minutes of inactivity but it timed out on me after less than 5 minutes of inactivity and also after no inactivity at all several times.

2. Save the application to File after completing each page and before continuing on to the next page. You actually have 2 save options - one that temporarily saves your application information until it has been completed and one that saves the application to your local drive. Always choose the Save Application to File option - the temporary save option will do nothing for you if your application times out or errors out on you which it definitely will 1 or 2 times and everything that you had entered up to that point will be lost.

3. After you Submit the application a Confirmation Page will be displayed. Before you do anything else make a screen shot of the confirmation page and save it. After you make a screen shot you can then try to print it but it sometimes errors out or times out when you try to print it and if it does then there is no way to retrieve the confirmation page again and the applicant will need the confirmation page for every other step in the visa process - the page has their confirmation number & corresponding barcode as well as their photo on it. Do not even try to use the Email Confirmation Page option because it will error out every time.

You would think that since the DS-160 has been in use for some time now that the government would have gotten the kinks worked out of the application submission process by now.

[robert angel]

Yes, as said

>>You would think<, but at the same time, I don't think many are surprised the govt hasn't fixed it or improved that form much, despite fees going up so fast, and in such large increments at that...