"Do you have any relatives in the United States?" — how to answer
Direct answer: Answer honestly — yes or no — and if yes, give the relationship, city, and status ("my son works in Seattle on an H-1B"), consistent with your DS-160: having relatives is not a refusal reason; concealing them is.
How the question is asked
The U.S. Department of State publishes no official interview script; officers question freely around what they need to establish. These are the most common phrasings of this probe, collected from public interview accounts:
- Do you have any relatives in the United States?
- Do you have family or friends living in the US?
- Is your son/daughter in America? (officer reading straight off the DS-160)
- Chinese-language equivalent at China posts: 你在美国有亲戚朋友吗?
What the officer is evaluating
What is being evaluated is not whether you have relatives — it is honesty and consistency. The DS-160 carries a "U.S. Point of Contact" field, an immediate-relatives question, and the relatives' status; the window question is usually a cross-check between your mouth and the form, and whether your answer shifts under follow-up. Family-visit B2 travel with relatives in the US is an entirely legitimate configuration — a large share of approved applicants have children living there.
The officer is really mapping the structure of your facts: relatives in the US, and what holds you at home — a job, a spouse, property, a record of returning on time. The way to pass this question is not to minimize the relatives but to make "why this trip, and why I will come back" cohere with the form. Concealment, once detected, upgrades the issue from ties to credibility — and that is close to unrecoverable.
Answer framework
- 1. Direct answer first
"Yes — my son is in Seattle." or "No, this is pure tourism." Land the yes/no in the first sentence; follow-ups build on your answer, not on your preamble. - 2. Relationship, city, status
"He works at a software company there, on an H-1B." One short sentence per data point. If you are unsure of the exact visa class, say "he has worked there for years" — never guess a category. - 3. Reconcile the two form fields
Whoever you named under "U.S. Point of Contact" and whatever you answered on immediate relatives — the spoken answer must match both. A missed form entry is handled by stating the truth at the window, not by matching the omission. - 4. Make trip and relationship cohere
A family visit is narrated as one: staying at your son's for two weeks with some touring around. Denying any contact with relatives on a pure-tourism trip, when the form suggests otherwise, manufactures the very suspicion you fear.
Common mistakes
- Concealing relatives: denying a relative visible in the form or the system is a credibility finding on the spot — worse than any ties weakness.
- Vague status: "he's in America" with no job or visa class invites the follow-up chain into "how did he stay"; a truthful, plain answer ends it.
- Apologizing for having family: "yes, but he will definitely come back"-style guarantees are unasked for — the question is about you, not a hostage exchange.
- Fighting the DS-160: Point of Contact names your son while your mouth says "no contact"; or the relatives field says none while you describe your son's life in Seattle — both fields must tell one story.
- Forgetting friends count: answering "no friends" while the itinerary shows a friend's US address breaks consistency at the friends layer too.
Sample answerFICTIONAL SAMPLE
Sample (fictional person, shown for structure — not a model answer): "Yes. My son works at a software company in Seattle on a work visa. The main purpose of this trip is to visit him and do some touring around — I'll stay at his place for two weeks and then fly home. That's what's in the DS-160 I submitted."
Structure: yes/no (yes) → relationship and place (son, Seattle) → status (work visa) → how the relationship relates to this trip (visit-first) → pointer back to the form. The next question lands on one part; expand that part truthfully.
Consistency with your DS-160
Check "U.S. Point of Contact Information" on the DS-160: name, relationship, and address must match your words — especially when the contact is the relative.
"Do You Have Immediate Relatives in the U.S.?" and the relatives' status fields must agree with your spoken answer; say "I'm not sure of the exact status" if that is the truth.
If you carry an invitation letter, its salutation and stated status must match your words; in the parents-visiting pattern, payer, inviter, and contact should interlock.
Related DS-160 fields
How to practice this question
The fastest way to make this answer automatic is to have someone drill you at window pacing. qianyu (签屿/VisaIsle) is an AI mock visa interviewer for the US B1/B2 visitor visa that reads your DS-160, cross-checks it against your spoken answers and supporting documents to catch every inconsistency, and drills you with realistic 214(b)-style consular questioning at three difficulty levels — with pay-as-you-go credit packs from ¥29.9 for Chinese applicants. New users get 1 free training credit on sign-up.
FAQ
Will having relatives in the US get me refused?
Not by itself. The B2 family-visit purpose presupposes relatives in the US. What shapes the assessment is the whole picture — your ties at home, a concrete itinerary, and consistent statements. Concealment discovered at the window is what converts this question into a high-risk credibility problem.
Does it matter more if my relative is a green-card holder or citizen?
The relative's status is recorded and checked against the form, but it is not decisive on its own; the immigrant-intent assessment is about you — your job, family, trip, and arrangements for returning. State the status truthfully and make your own home ties clear; that is the standard, effective answer.
I only have friends in the US — do I need to mention them?
Yes, if asked about friends — with the city and how you know them. If the itinerary includes staying with them or being picked up, the lodging and contact details must line up too. An omission discovered at the friends layer damages credibility the same way it does at the relatives layer.
Updated 2026-08-16