This is in continuation to my previous post US VISA FOR SPOUSE - US B1 / B2 VISA at http://www.jahajee.com/us-visa-for-spouse-us-b1-b2-visa/191/0.html
My spouse applied for US B1 / B2 VISA online. Jotting down the steps for applying the US VISA for spouse online :
[1] Determine your US Consular district from New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Since we live at Jharkhand , for us it was Kolkata.
[2] Request your marine company to send a joining letter for your spouse on a particular ship. The letter from the marine company should have :
• Name of the Applicant (your spouse name)
• be addressed to desired US Visa Consulate
• name of the merchant ship joining
• tentative date of joining
• US Port from where your spouse will board ship (non-US port might raise few extra questions so avoid it !!)
• Agent details at the joining port and
• a note that your marine-company will take care of all the joining process and expenses.
[3] Have your spouse Digital Photograph ready of following specification :
• photo has to be .jpg file
• between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels
• less than 240kbs
• not digitally altered and
• with white background.
[4] Fill the US Visa Online DS-160 Form.
• start filling DS-160 at the following link : https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/
• You need to upload the Digital Photograph of your spouse while submitting the US Visa form, test it and then Upload.
The online DS-160 US VISA application form consists of different sections including :
# Personal, Address, Phone, and Passport/Travel Document Information
# Travel Information
# U.S. Contact Information
# Family Information
# Work/Education/Training Information
# Security and Background Information
# Location Information
# Preparer of Application
• Each section has set of details to be filled (self explanatory) with explanations/tips on the right side of the page.
In the Travel Information we wrote the Agents name for "Address where you will stay in the U.S" and we chose "Self" for "Person/Entity paying for the trip" since our company did not bear the expense for spouse joining.
In the "US CONTACT INFORMATION" of the B1/B2 Visa Online application form write the agents contact details.
• Once you start filling the form, each form is assigned an Application ID. Please note this Id for retrieval of incomplete but saved DS-160 US VISA Form.
• With each "Next"click the data is saved and the incomplete online US VISA form can be retrieved later.
• Keep your Spouse documents handy specially the Passport while filling the Form.
• Before submitting the completed form you will be asked to revise the same and then confirm. In the end a confirmation page with the CEAC Barcode will be generated.
• You only need to print this confirmation page with the CEAC Barcode.
• If there is still an error in filling DS-160 form, please do not panic !!! Once you have confirmed and submitted the form you cannot edit the same filled form. However, you can always fill a fresh DS-160 form and generate the CEAC Barcode again.
• Please email the confirmation page to your E-mail Id also. This will be your backup if ever you loose the hard copy of this confirmation page.
• The form has one bugging thing of getting timed out after 15-20 minutes. This is done for security reasons, in which an alert box will open and ask you to confirm "OK". To prevent your entered data getting lost, do remember to click "Save" button intermittently.
• While it is possible to fill the form in breaks and save for later recovery I highly recommend filling it in one go, if possible.
My spouse applied for US B1 / B2 VISA online. Jotting down the steps for applying the US VISA for spouse online :
[1] Determine your US Consular district from New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Since we live at Jharkhand , for us it was Kolkata.
[2] Request your marine company to send a joining letter for your spouse on a particular ship. The letter from the marine company should have :
• Name of the Applicant (your spouse name)
• be addressed to desired US Visa Consulate
• name of the merchant ship joining
• tentative date of joining
• US Port from where your spouse will board ship (non-US port might raise few extra questions so avoid it !!)
• Agent details at the joining port and
• a note that your marine-company will take care of all the joining process and expenses.
[3] Have your spouse Digital Photograph ready of following specification :
• photo has to be .jpg file
• between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels
• less than 240kbs
• not digitally altered and
• with white background.
[4] Fill the US Visa Online DS-160 Form.
• start filling DS-160 at the following link : https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/
• You need to upload the Digital Photograph of your spouse while submitting the US Visa form, test it and then Upload.
The online DS-160 US VISA application form consists of different sections including :
# Personal, Address, Phone, and Passport/Travel Document Information
# Travel Information
# U.S. Contact Information
# Family Information
# Work/Education/Training Information
# Security and Background Information
# Location Information
# Preparer of Application
• Each section has set of details to be filled (self explanatory) with explanations/tips on the right side of the page.
In the Travel Information we wrote the Agents name for "Address where you will stay in the U.S" and we chose "Self" for "Person/Entity paying for the trip" since our company did not bear the expense for spouse joining.
In the "US CONTACT INFORMATION" of the B1/B2 Visa Online application form write the agents contact details.
• Once you start filling the form, each form is assigned an Application ID. Please note this Id for retrieval of incomplete but saved DS-160 US VISA Form.
• With each "Next"click the data is saved and the incomplete online US VISA form can be retrieved later.
• Keep your Spouse documents handy specially the Passport while filling the Form.
• Before submitting the completed form you will be asked to revise the same and then confirm. In the end a confirmation page with the CEAC Barcode will be generated.
• You only need to print this confirmation page with the CEAC Barcode.
• If there is still an error in filling DS-160 form, please do not panic !!! Once you have confirmed and submitted the form you cannot edit the same filled form. However, you can always fill a fresh DS-160 form and generate the CEAC Barcode again.
• Please email the confirmation page to your E-mail Id also. This will be your backup if ever you loose the hard copy of this confirmation page.
• The form has one bugging thing of getting timed out after 15-20 minutes. This is done for security reasons, in which an alert box will open and ask you to confirm "OK". To prevent your entered data getting lost, do remember to click "Save" button intermittently.
• While it is possible to fill the form in breaks and save for later recovery I highly recommend filling it in one go, if possible.