Tweet
I'm currently a 9th grade student in Cambodia, and I applied for an exchange program to the US.
I filled most of the application form by myself without requesting assistance from my parents, and I made a bad mistake. In the application they asked me if I have any relatives in the U.S, at that time I thought no, but I actually have a first cousin once removed, he's my mom's cousin. The reason I didn't add him was, at that time I thought he's an orphan living with my grandma, and he's not officially our relatives. And he went to the U.S since he was little (legally), and out of my entire 15 years of life, I only remember seeing him once. I had absolutely no intention to lie, it was an honest mistake.
The bad thing is, the application has already been submitted, a host family was found, and a certificate of eligibility for a J-1 visa (DS-2019) has already been created. There's no way to change it. But in my DS-160 Visas, I'll say I have relatives. When they review the DS-160 and my exchange application, they'll find the conflict of information.
For now, I think my only option is to report this to my program sponsor and tell the consular that it was a mistake when I get interviewed. For now I'm afraid that, if I report this to my program sponsor, they might think I was lying and terminate me out of the program. Is this so serious, that my Visa can get denied? What do you think I should do?
I filled most of the application form by myself without requesting assistance from my parents, and I made a bad mistake. In the application they asked me if I have any relatives in the U.S, at that time I thought no, but I actually have a first cousin once removed, he's my mom's cousin. The reason I didn't add him was, at that time I thought he's an orphan living with my grandma, and he's not officially our relatives. And he went to the U.S since he was little (legally), and out of my entire 15 years of life, I only remember seeing him once. I had absolutely no intention to lie, it was an honest mistake.
The bad thing is, the application has already been submitted, a host family was found, and a certificate of eligibility for a J-1 visa (DS-2019) has already been created. There's no way to change it. But in my DS-160 Visas, I'll say I have relatives. When they review the DS-160 and my exchange application, they'll find the conflict of information.
For now, I think my only option is to report this to my program sponsor and tell the consular that it was a mistake when I get interviewed. For now I'm afraid that, if I report this to my program sponsor, they might think I was lying and terminate me out of the program. Is this so serious, that my Visa can get denied? What do you think I should do?
