// PARENTS INTERVIEW GUIDE · B1/B2

B1/B2 interview questions parents are commonly asked

Direct answer: Interviews for parents visiting family usually turn on a few groups of facts: what this trip is for, who they are visiting, that person's status and work in the US, who pays, how long they plan to stay, and the parents' own life and ties at home. Each should be answered with facts the parent can truthfully state, consistent with DS-160; a consular officer decides every application individually.

Source: Visitor Visa

The question groups that come up most

Visiting relatives is one of the B-2 travel purposes listed by the U.S. Department of State. Around that purpose, interviews tend to settle on a small set of fact groups a parent can prepare to state plainly, in their own words.

These questions come up often in family-visit interviews — the point is not memorizing answers but being able to state each one truthfully and briefly:

Purpose: what is this trip for, and where do you plan to go?
Relatives: who are you visiting? What do they do in the US, and what is their status? When did you last see them?
Funding: who pays for the tickets and the expenses during the stay?
Stay: how long do you plan to stay, and when will you return? Why that length?
Home: the parent's own work or retirement, family, and living arrangements at home.

Source: Visitor Visa

In the parent's own words, not a script

The consular officer talks to the parent. Adult children can help organize the real itinerary and confirm who covers which costs, but the answers need to be ones the parent can actually say — even if short and plain. Reciting lines written by someone else tends to fall apart under follow-up questions.

If a parent is not comfortable in English, interviews can be conducted per the current arrangements of the embassy or consulate where they apply. Language is not what is being scored; truthful, clear answers are what practice is for.

Source: Visitor Visa · Visa Denials

Stay consistent with DS-160 (especially when children filled it)

Many parents' DS-160 forms are completed with a child's help. The State Department explains that the DS-160 is used together with the personal interview, so before the interview the parent should know what the form says: who the host is, the address, the length of stay, the source of funds. Spoken answers should match.

If the form turns out to differ from the real situation, handle corrections per official guidance rather than improvising an explanation at the window.

Does the parent know the visit purpose, address, and stay length entered on the DS-160?
Does the spoken funding explanation match the form?
Is the work/retirement information on the form the current truth?

Source: DS-160 overview · DS-160 FAQs

How retired parents can explain home ties

Under section 214(b) of U.S. law, a visitor-visa applicant must satisfy the consular officer that the trip is a temporary visit. For retired parents, truthfully statable ties often include: pension and living arrangements, the home they live in, family members they look after, their daily life, and the practical reasons they return after the visit.

All of this rests on the parent's real circumstances — practice helps state facts that already exist clearly; it does not create new ones.

Source: Visa Denials · Visitor Visa

What else do applicants ask?

What questions are parents asked in a B1/B2 interview?

Common groups: the purpose and itinerary of this trip, the child being visited and their status and work in the US, who pays, how long the stay will be, and the parent's own work/retirement and family situation at home. Answer with facts the parent can truthfully state — there is no standard answer.

My parents don't speak English — what happens at the interview?

Interviews can be conducted per the current arrangements of the embassy or consulate where they apply, including in the applicant's language. Language ability is not what is evaluated; clear, truthful answers about the real visit are.

A child filled in the DS-160 — what should parents watch for?

Before the interview, make sure the parent knows the key facts on the form: visit purpose, host, address, stay length, source of funds — and that spoken answers match. If something on the form is wrong, correct it per official guidance instead of explaining it away at the window.

How do retired parents show they will return home?

Under 214(b), applicants must show the trip is temporary. Retired parents can truthfully describe pension, housing, family they care for, and their life to return to — real existing ties, not stacks of documents or guarantee letters.

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.

Item	Official value	Source
Non-petition-based visa application fee (includes B-1/B-2, F, J, M), non-refundable	US$185	State Dept. fee schedule
Petition-based visa application fee (H, L, O, P, Q, R)	US$205	State Dept. fee schedule
E treaty trader / investor visa fee	US$315	State Dept. fee schedule
DHS visa integrity fee — created by statute, not yet collected by DHS; do not add it to the fee above	US$250	PL 119-21 §100007
Official estimate for completing one DS-160	90 minutes	CEAC DS-160 instructions
Passport validity required beyond your intended stay	6 months	State Dept. visitor visa page
Window to submit documents after a 221(g) refusal (from the refusal date)	1 year	State Dept. administrative processing
How long administrative processing takes	no fixed time published; varies by case	State Dept. administrative processing
EVUS enrolment validity (or until the passport/visa expires, whichever is first)	2 years	EVUS
Re-entry bar after departing with more than 180 days of unlawful presence	3 years	8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(9)(B)
Re-entry bar after departing with 1 year or more of unlawful presence	10 years	8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(9)(B)

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
U.S. Department of State — Visa Denials
U.S. Department of State — DS-160: Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application
U.S. Department of State — DS-160 Frequently Asked Questions
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.

How do you turn this into something you can say at the window?

Reading the guide is the easy half. What decides the outcome is whether you can say the same facts out loud, in order, under time pressure, at the window. qianyu (签屿/VisaIsle) is an AI mock visa interviewer for the US B1/B2 visitor visa: it 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. Credit packs are pay-as-you-go — ¥29.9 for 1 credit, ¥59.9 for 3 — and new users get 1 free training credit on sign-up.

Updated 2026-08-27