"Who invited you to the US?" — how to answer
Direct answer: State the inviter and relationship in one sentence ("my daughter invited me to her graduation"), with the occasion dated if possible; the invitation letter, the DS-160 contact, the lodging, and the payer should interlock as one chain, not four stories.
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:
- Who invited you to the US?
- Who asked you to come? / Whose graduation is it?
- Did your son write you an invitation letter?
- Chinese-language equivalent at China posts: 谁邀请你去的?
What is the officer evaluating?
The inviter is the narrative core of a family-visit B2: who they are, their status, why now, where you stay, who pays. What is checked is the coherence of the invitation chain — the letter's signatory, the DS-160's "U.S. Point of Contact", the lodging address, and the payer field should all point at the same person and occasion; when the chain is clean, this question takes thirty seconds.
The occasion's concreteness sets the follow-up density: occasions with objective dates (graduation, wedding, a birth) are the cheapest; "just to see him" can pass, but you must have time, lodging, and funding answers ready. An invitation letter is not legally required — it is simply the cheapest tool for fixing the spoken narrative onto paper; carry it if you have one, matching your words.
How should you structure the answer?
- 1. Inviter, relation, occasion
"My daughter invited me — her master's graduation is May 18." Three elements in one sentence; a dated occasion carries its own credibility. - 2. Status in one sentence
When asked "what does she do there": "She's a graduate student in statistics at Ann Arbor." City, status, field — consistent with the relatives field and the letter. - 3. Pre-answer the chain three
Staying where (her place / a hotel near campus), for how long (two weeks, matching the form), who pays (she does / I do, matching the payer field) — these follow the invitation question almost automatically. - 4. One primary inviter
With multiple children or co-signers, name one primary inviter (usually the contact/payer); others surface only if asked.
Which answers most often go wrong?
- A four-way fork: the letter from the daughter, the form's contact the son, the mouth saying "both asked me" — an unclear primary inviter is the most common family-visit deduction.
- Vague occasion: "just miss her, going to see her" — may be true, but invites the time/lodging/funding sequence; prepare those three answers.
- Letter-versus-mouth funding fight: the letter declares full sponsorship while you claim self-funding — one funding story, kept everywhere.
- Upgrading the occasion: recasting a plain visit as "care after her delivery" turns a short family visit into a caregiving arrangement outside B2 norms.
- Blank inviter facts: no city, no status for the central person of the narrative — the interview's credibility collapses with its subject.
Sample answerFICTIONAL SAMPLE
Sample (fictional person, shown for structure — not a model answer): "My daughter invited me. She's finishing her master's in statistics at the University of Michigan — graduation is May 18 and she wants me there. I'll stay at her place for two weeks; she's booking the tickets, and she's the contact on my DS-160."
Structure: inviter and relation → dated occasion → lodging/duration/funding → pointer to the form. The high-frequency family-visit follow-ups are answered before they are asked.
How do you stay consistent with your DS-160?
Check the invitation letter (if any): signatory, occasion, and dates match the spoken story; the letter's funding statement, the form's payer field, and the mouth share one version.
The DS-160's "U.S. Point of Contact" is the primary inviter; the relatives field's status description (student / work visa) matches the spoken one.
The lodging address matches the inviter's address when staying with them; otherwise any hotel address in the itinerary's city is consistent.
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?
Can I apply for a family-visit visa without a formal invitation letter?
Yes — the letter is not a legal requirement. A plain note from the child (status, occasion, funding) plus proof of their status serves the same function as a templated letter; what is actually checked is the consistency of your spoken narrative with the form and materials, not letterhead.
My inviter is a friend, not a relative — is that OK?
Yes, with a fuller narrative: the friend's city, how you know each other, and this trip's occasion (wedding, gathering, a visit). The common follow-up for non-relative inviters is the relationship's reality — concrete facts (friends for ten years, colleagues for three) beat a generic "close friend".
Do I need proof of the graduation I'm attending?
Helpful if available: the school's ceremony invitation email or page, or the child's enrollment letter. Not mandatory — but dated written occasions pin the narrative; without them, consistency does the work.
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