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Hi,
I am a Canadian permanent resident living in Toronto Canada.
I had applied and was consequently approved for a B1/B2 visa in Aug 2016 in Toronto. This visa just expired 2 Aug 2021. I am applying for a renewal of my B1/B2 visa.
In the meantime, I had also applied and consequently was approved for a J1 visa in Dec 2018 (expired 26 Apr 2019).
In the DS-160 form, for the question regarding 'Have you ever been issued a U.S. Visa?', should I put down my J1 visa or my B1/B2 visa?
Note that there is a followup question 'Are you applying for the same type of visa?', if I put down J1 visa above, I have to answer 'no' to this question. The same questions are asked in the scheduling tool and answering 'no' prompts me to select a visa interview slot over a year later. [The scheduling tool mentions that I should mention my most recent 'issued' visa]
I also filled in the DS-160 applications for my parents separately and their last issued visa was B1/B2 and they both got the visa interview waiver, which makes me wonder if I should also just write about B1/B2 and say I am renewing the same type of visa in my DS-160 and scheduling tool.
I sent an email to the consulate 4 days ago but haven't received a response. Has anyone been in a similar situation? I feel that I am eligible for a visa interview waiver because I am just renewing B1/B2 but there is no slot to write about it in the DS-160 because I got issued another additional visa in the meantime.
Thanks.
Update:
So I never got any reply from the consulate but I called the customer service for the appointment scheduling site and told them about my situation on how I should be eligible for the interview waiver since I had a past B1/B2 that expired within past 12 months (48 months for covid) and had no visa rejections in the meantime. They told me to create a new DS-160 and write about my past B1/B2 visa instead of J1 though the J1 was more recently issued. They told me to do the same on the scheduling site.
Once I put just my past B1/B2 information, I can then answer 'yes' to the question 'Are you applying for the same type of visa?'. This prompted the system to automatically grant me the visa interview waiver. So I just had to mail my documents based on the new instructions. I just got my visa and passport back today within 2 weeks of mailing instead of having to wait a year for an interview.
However, my advice would be to contact them first before changing the answers in the DS-160 and scheduling site.
I am a Canadian permanent resident living in Toronto Canada.
I had applied and was consequently approved for a B1/B2 visa in Aug 2016 in Toronto. This visa just expired 2 Aug 2021. I am applying for a renewal of my B1/B2 visa.
In the meantime, I had also applied and consequently was approved for a J1 visa in Dec 2018 (expired 26 Apr 2019).
In the DS-160 form, for the question regarding 'Have you ever been issued a U.S. Visa?', should I put down my J1 visa or my B1/B2 visa?
Note that there is a followup question 'Are you applying for the same type of visa?', if I put down J1 visa above, I have to answer 'no' to this question. The same questions are asked in the scheduling tool and answering 'no' prompts me to select a visa interview slot over a year later. [The scheduling tool mentions that I should mention my most recent 'issued' visa]
I also filled in the DS-160 applications for my parents separately and their last issued visa was B1/B2 and they both got the visa interview waiver, which makes me wonder if I should also just write about B1/B2 and say I am renewing the same type of visa in my DS-160 and scheduling tool.
I sent an email to the consulate 4 days ago but haven't received a response. Has anyone been in a similar situation? I feel that I am eligible for a visa interview waiver because I am just renewing B1/B2 but there is no slot to write about it in the DS-160 because I got issued another additional visa in the meantime.
Thanks.
Update:
So I never got any reply from the consulate but I called the customer service for the appointment scheduling site and told them about my situation on how I should be eligible for the interview waiver since I had a past B1/B2 that expired within past 12 months (48 months for covid) and had no visa rejections in the meantime. They told me to create a new DS-160 and write about my past B1/B2 visa instead of J1 though the J1 was more recently issued. They told me to do the same on the scheduling site.
Once I put just my past B1/B2 information, I can then answer 'yes' to the question 'Are you applying for the same type of visa?'. This prompted the system to automatically grant me the visa interview waiver. So I just had to mail my documents based on the new instructions. I just got my visa and passport back today within 2 weeks of mailing instead of having to wait a year for an interview.
However, my advice would be to contact them first before changing the answers in the DS-160 and scheduling site.
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