"What does your son/daughter do in the US?" — how to answer
Direct answer: Answer with four facts — city, occupation, status, and years: "my son is a software engineer in Boston on a work visa, four years now"; downgrade any fact you are unsure of to "about", and keep it consistent with the DS-160 contact and relatives fields.
How is this question 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:
- What does your son/daughter do in the US?
- Where does your child live? How long have they been there?
- What's their visa status? (the direct version)
- Chinese-language equivalent at China posts: 你孩子在美国做什么?
What is the officer evaluating?
In the parents-visiting scenario this question is nearly universal and usually comes with follow-ups. The officer is checking three things: that the child's details match the DS-160 contact and relatives fields; that the parents' knowledge of their own child is real ("can't say where they work" is a danger signal); and that the relationship supports this trip coherently — visiting whom, staying where, who pays, for how long.
Parents often worry that an imperfect description of the child's status hurts the case. The assessment logic runs the other way: a child on a work visa or enrolled in a degree gives the relationship a clear legal status and trajectory, and parents who can name the city, job, and years prove the relationship is real. The thing to avoid is not imprecision — it is contradiction: one story at the window, another on the form, a third in the invitation letter.
How should you structure the answer?
- 1. Four facts in one sentence
"My daughter is an accountant in Chicago, on an H-1B, five years now." City, occupation, status, years — then expand whichever one the follow-up lands on. - 2. Status: say it or downgrade it
Name the visa class if you know it; if all you know is "she works at Google", say the employer plus "a work visa of some kind" — never improvise green-card versus H-1B distinctions you are unsure of. - 3. Catch the trip questions that follow
"You're going to visit her — staying at her place? For how long?" These arrive almost automatically; have the answers ready: staying at the daughter's, days matching the form, funding matching the payer field. - 4. Let paper anchor the details
If the invitation letter and your child's employment or enrollment proof travel with the documents, the employer, school, and address there are your script; form, letter, and mouth speak with one voice.
Which answers most often go wrong?
- Missing the basics: no city, no occupation — the relationship's reality is instantly in question and the questioning digs deeper.
- Improvised status: calling a student "already working", or a work visa a green card; mismatching the letter or the system costs credibility.
- Three versions of the truth: DS-160 contact names the son, the invitation letter is signed by the daughter, and the interview reveals "both children are there" — conflicting facts are worse than plain ones.
- Over-guaranteeing: one sentence of "I'll come back — my younger son is here" is enough; repeated assurances read as compensation.
- Reframing the visit as childcare: "going to help with the baby for three months" — a long childcare arrangement drifts beyond B2 family-visit norms and invites reclassification.
Sample answerFICTIONAL SAMPLE
Sample (fictional person, shown for structure — not a model answer): "My son is a software engineer in Boston, on a work visa, four years now. I'm going for his wedding and to see the city he lives in — staying at his place for two weeks, and he's covering the costs. He's also the contact on my DS-160."
Structure: four facts → the occasion (a wedding — concrete and verifiable) → lodging/days/funding → pointer to the form. The high-frequency parents-visit follow-ups (where, how long, who pays) are answered before they are asked.
How do you stay consistent with your DS-160?
Check "U.S. Point of Contact Information" and the immediate-relatives field: the child's name, city, and relationship agree; when the child pays, "Person/Entity Paying for Your Trip" names them too.
The invitation letter's salutation, occasion, and dates match your words; occasions with objective dates (graduation, wedding) are the sturdiest.
When both parents interview separately (common), align the story at home first: one city, one employer name, one itinerary.
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 at ¥29.9 for 1 credit and ¥59.9 for 3. New users get 1 free training credit on sign-up.
What else do applicants ask?
Is it better if my child studies or works in the US?
Both are routinely approved configurations; the weight sits on the relationship being real, the trip making sense, and the statements lining up. A child with stable employment or enrollment gives the relationship a clear trajectory — parents who can state the details matter more than which status the child holds.
My child is a green-card holder — are parents more likely to be refused?
Not decisive. The immigrant-intent assessment is about the parents: what remains at home (spouse, property, other children, pension) and whether the trip is short and specific. State the child's status truthfully and lay out your own home arrangements; concealing the status is what creates the real problem.
My parents don't speak English well — how do they memorize all this?
Drill the four facts in Chinese until fluent — at China posts the interview can be conducted in Chinese. A small card with city, occupation, status, and years for the taxi ride (not for the window) settles nerves; a mock interview at real pacing is the best rehearsal there is.
What are the official numbers?
Every figure below was read from an official U.S. government page, not from experience or an agency's summary. Fees and rules change — before you actually pay or file, check the primary pages listed under the sources section. One row deliberately carries no number: the State Department has never published a fixed duration for administrative processing.
Every figure above was last checked against its source on 2026-08-27
Where are the official sources?
These are the primary sources this site cites — U.S. government pages and the statute text itself. Each one was opened and confirmed reachable on the date shown below. Wherever this site and an official page disagree, the official page is the one that counts.
- U.S. Department of State — Visitor Visa (B-1/B-2)The official statement of what B-1/B-2 does and does not permit, the application steps, and required documents.
- U.S. Department of State — Fees for Visa ServicesThe only authoritative source for the application fee. Fees change — check this page before you pay.
- CEAC — Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application (DS-160)The DS-160 form itself, and where the confirmation page is reprinted.
- USTravelDocs — appointments and fee payment (China)The official service for booking, rescheduling, paying and passport return; rules vary by the post where you apply.
- 8 U.S.C. §1184 — the statute behind a 214(b) refusalWhere the presumption of immigrant intent — the thing a 214(b) refusal actually applies — is written down.
- EVUS — Electronic Visa Update SystemWhere holders of a 10-year B1/B2 on a PRC passport enrol before travelling.
- 9 FAM 402.1 — Overview of NIV ClassificationsThe Foreign Affairs Manual consular officers work from — more detailed than the applicant-facing pages.
Updated 2026-08-27