State Department Polls Visa Form Users for Improvements
Published Date: 11/19/2025
Notice
Summary
The Department of State wants your thoughts on updating the immigrant visa application form (DS-260) used by about 460,000 people each year. They’re checking if the form is clear, necessary, and not too time-consuming (it takes about 2.5 hours to fill out). You’ve got until December 19, 2025, to share your feedback—no cost changes yet, just making the process smoother!
Analyzed Economic Effects
7 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
Paper DS-230 Discontinued
The Department will discontinue the paper immigrant visa form (DS-230) effective November 1, 2025. If you apply for an immigrant visa after that date, you will need to use the electronic DS-260 instead.
DS-260 Takes About 155 Minutes
The DS-260 is submitted electronically and the Department estimates the average time to complete it is 155 minutes (about 2.6 hours). The Department estimates about 460,000 respondents per year and a total annual burden of 1,188,333 hours.
Ongoing Modernization for Usability
The Department is undertaking a large-scale modernization project to make technical improvements and plain-language rephrasing across the DS-260, and to address issues such as timeouts, login errors, and inability to amend the form. The modernization cannot be completed within the current PRA renewal cycle.
Travel History Now Covers 15 Years
The DS-260 travel question was revised to ask: 'Have you traveled to any countries/regions, other than the United States, within the last fifteen years?' The new question lengthens the timeframe applicants must report.
Detailed Past Address Information Required
The Department will continue to require detailed past address information (used for vetting and fraud prevention) and will not adopt AILA's proposal to limit address history to city/state/province or add an 'unknown' checkbox at this time.
New Medical Examination Disclosure Section
The Department added a separate 'Medical Examination Disclosure and Consent' subsection that explains the Australian Department of Home Affairs' (ADHA) technical role in the eMedical system and clarifies limited ADHA records access. The form will include clearer language about temporary storage of medical information in eMedical.
DS-260 Processing Cost Recovered By Fees
The Department states the federal government expenditures to process the DS-260 total $94,022,024, and that consular fees are generally set to recover the full cost. The Department states the net cost to the American taxpayer is $0.
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