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I want to spend another vacation in the U.S. and require a B/2 visa this time due to changes in U.S. regulation regarding my dual-citizenship.

What is the best way to go about planning and booking a trip with regard to filling the travel information section of the DS-160 form ("Intended Date of Arrival", "Intended Length of Stay in U.S.", "Address Where You Will Stay in the U.S.")?

The U.S. Department of State website says:

We cannot guarantee that you will be issued a visa. Do not make final travel plans or buy tickets until you have a visa.

The U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Germany website says:

You can enter an address of the U.S. University, exchange organization, company. Tourists can enter the address of the hotel they are planning to stay in or the address of the airport they arrive at.

The DS-160 form says:

If you are unsure of your travel plans, please provide an estimate.

So I assume that it is recommended and accepted to provide an intended plan or an estimate in the DS-160 form and book the trip (flights, accommodation) after receiving a visa. But offers change so quickly that it is very likely that an offer you intended to book will no longer be available after you receive your visa. What happens in that case? Do you have to submit changes or another form then? Or should you even enter the address of the airport where you will arrive at (see above) instead of a hotel address since that is unlikely to change?

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  • You do not have to re-submit minor changes to your itinerary or where you plan to stay. They know how reservations work. But if you mention that your intended duration of stay is 1 week and you end up staying there for 3 months that might raise some eyebrows
    – Hanky Panky
    Jul 21, 2017 at 4:34
  • Thank you for your comment but why didn't you post it as an answer? :) Also, do you have any sources (if there are any at all)? And I should mention: the duration of stay is the one thing of these three that I can specify with very high confidence as I won't have time to stay for more than 2 weeks even if I wanted to. :)
    – Quasar
    Jul 21, 2017 at 17:55

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The form DS-160 is used to apply for the visa. Once you have received the visa, the form itself has no use any more. Even if you would totally cancel you trip and make a completely different trip in a few years, you cannot change the information. Of course you might be asked what happened to you original plans during the landing interview, but just providing the explanation should be enough. As usual, they try to establish if you are a genuine visitor and changing plans is something that genuine visitors happen to do. Just assume that the officer doing the landing interview is aware of everything you said during the visa interview and eventual previous landing interviews and make sure that both stories add up.

The form also asks for work history, education history, visited countries etc. There is also no need to update that information if you would go on with your life during the (usually) 10 years that a visa is valid. They know that your life is not put on hold at the time you fill out a DS-160.

When I flew to the US on a B1/B2 a few weeks ago, I had to provide the place where I would stay (for the first night as usual) at the check-in. I assume that gives them a few hours to flag anything suspicious. And it is probably wise to write the same thing on your landing card, unless you had a reason to change accommodation between the time of check-in and the time of landing.

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