F2B

The DS-260 immigrant visa application now asks for much more than it used to. The revised version, approved in May 2026, asks every applicant for 15 years of foreign travel, with cities, dates and who paid; 15 years of employers for anyone over 14; every passport held in the past 15 years; all of your brothers and sisters; and your “spouse or civil/domestic partner,” current and former. For most people that means more homework. For an unmarried adult son or daughter waiting in the F1 or F2B category, or any applicant immigrating as an unmarried “child,” it means something more serious: the form now puts your relationship on the record, and if that relationship counts as a marriage under the law of the place where it was formed, you may no longer qualify for the visa you have been waiting for. Answer truthfully, and get advice before you answer, not after.

What changed on the DS-260 in 2026?

The State Department revised the DS-260 through the public Paperwork Reduction Act process. It published notices in the Federal Register in July and November 2025, and the White House Office of Management and Budget approved the revised form on May 19, 2026 (OMB No. 1405-0185). The Department’s supporting statement lists every change, and the screen-by-screen sample of the approved form is posted with the OMB record. As of October 2026, these are the changes that matter most to applicants:

• Travel, 15 years. The form asks, “Have you travelled to any countries/regions, other than the United States, within the last fifteen years?” For each trip it wants the country, the cities, the date you arrived, the length of stay, and who paid (yourself, another person, your employer, a U.S. employer, or another company or organization). Before, only certain applicants were asked, it covered five years, and it asked only for the countries.
• Employers, 15 years, for everyone over 14. Every applicant over 14 must list all employers from the last fifteen years and every school attended from high school on. Before, only certain groups had to list employers, and only for ten years.
• Passports, 15 years. A new question asks whether you have owned any other passports within the past fifteen years, with the issuing country and the number (there is a “do not know” box for the number).
• Siblings. A new page asks for every brother and sister, including half, step and adopted siblings, with name, date of birth and nationality.
• “Spouse or civil/domestic partner.” The form’s headings and fields now say “spouse or civil/domestic partner” where they used to say “spouse,” and every applicant is asked, “Do you have any previous spouses or civil/domestic partners?”
• Social media. The list of platforms was expanded, and you still list the accounts you used in the last five years.

The form also asks, as it did before, for every nationality you hold now or have ever held. Its help text says to include nationalities you formally gave up, and if the country no longer exists, to select the country that now governs that place. With the new passport question, that is worth getting right.

Two things did not change, and both matter. There is still no general box to explain your answers: the State Department considered adding one and declined, saying that applicants who want to explain a response can do so at the in-person interview (90 FR 52129, 52130). And once you submit the DS-260, you cannot edit it yourself; the National Visa Center or the consulate has to reopen it. In the same November 2025 notice, the Department acknowledged that problem and said work to fix it was underway.

Is a civil or domestic partner the same as a spouse for an immigrant visa?

Not automatically. It depends on the law of the place where the relationship was formed. The State Department’s manual for consular officers, the Foreign Affairs Manual, treats a civil union or domestic partnership as a marriage for visa purposes only if the place where it was created treats it as equal in all respects to a marriage (9 FAM 102.8-1(G)). The same test applies to common-law marriage and cohabitation (9 FAM 102.8-1(F)). Put in plain terms, the relationship counts as a marriage if, under local law, it can end only by divorce or death and carries the same rights a married couple has: possible alimony, inheritance without a will, and custody of children.

So the answer turns on facts most people have never looked up. A registered partnership in one country may carry only property and tax rights and be ended by a simple filing. That is not a marriage for visa purposes. A union in another country may be legally identical to marriage. That is a marriage, whatever it is called. A religious or traditional ceremony can also count, even before it is registered: the Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Coletti, 11 I&N Dec. 551 (BIA 1965) that a man who had a church wedding, lived with his wife and had a child was not “unmarried” when he immigrated as an unmarried son, even though the marriage had not yet been civilly recorded. That case involved a deliberate delay in recording the marriage, but the lesson holds: the label on your paperwork does not decide the question. The law of the place does, and the Board will look past technicalities of local law to how the couple actually lived.

The question does not stop at the border, either. Montana is one of the states that preserves common-law marriage (§ 40-1-403, MCA). A couple who lived together in Montana and held themselves out as married may be married under Montana law without ever having had a wedding.

Who is at risk from the partner question?

Anyone whose visa category requires them to be unmarried. Federal law defines “unmarried” as not married at the time, “whether or not previously married” (INA § 101(a)(39)), so a divorce in your past is not the problem. A relationship that is a marriage today is. The categories that require you to be unmarried are:

• F1: unmarried sons and daughters (21 or older) of U.S. citizens.
• F2B: unmarried sons and daughters (21 or older) of permanent residents.
• Children of U.S. citizens immigrating as immediate relatives, and children of permanent residents in F2A. Immigration law defines a “child” as unmarried and under 21.
• Derivative children in every category: family, employment and diversity visa cases. A son or daughter who is married cannot immigrate as a “child” with a parent.

These beneficiaries have often waited a long time. In the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, the F2B final action dates reach priority dates from August 2019 for most countries and May 2010 for Mexico. Losing the category at the last step is the worst outcome in family immigration, and the new partner question is where it can surface.

What happens to my case if the consulate decides I am married?

It depends on who filed the petition and what your category is. The regulations set the result, and the officer does not have discretion to waive it:

• F1 (parent is a U.S. citizen): the petition converts to F3, married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, and you keep your priority date (8 CFR § 204.2(i)(1)(i)). The F3 line is longer. In the October 2026 bulletin its final action dates reach October 2014 for most countries and July 2001 for Mexico.
• F2B or F2A (parent is a permanent resident): the petition is automatically revoked (8 CFR § 205.1(a)(3)(i)(I)). There is no category for the married son or daughter of a permanent resident. A new petition is possible only after your parent becomes a citizen, and it starts over with a new priority date.
• Child of a U.S. citizen (immediate relative): the petition converts to F3, and the original filing date becomes your priority date (8 CFR § 204.2(i)(1)(ii)).
• Derivative child: a married son or daughter is not a “child” and cannot receive a derivative visa with the parent.

Our article on the F-2B election when a parent naturalizes explains why a parent’s citizenship works as insurance against a wedding, and what an F-2B beneficiary gives up by opting out of the conversion.

How should I answer the partner question if I am not married?

Truthfully, and only after you know how the law treats your relationship. Our judgment is that this is the step most applicants will get wrong, because the form itself is uneven. In the sample of the approved form, the “current marital status” menu still offers only Married, Single, Widowed, Divorced and Legally Separated. The page about a current “spouse or civil/domestic partner” appears only if you choose Married or Legally Separated. But the page about “previous spouses or civil/domestic partners” appears for everyone. A person in a current registered partnership finds no slot for it, and a person whose partnership ended is asked about it directly.

We would not let that unevenness decide the answer. Work in this order:

• First, decide what the relationship is. Find out whether the law of the place where it was formed treats it as a marriage under the 9 FAM test above. For a foreign partnership, that may mean reading the country’s civil code or getting a short opinion from a lawyer there.
• If it is a marriage, you are married for immigration purposes. Do not answer “single.” Stop and get advice about your category before you submit anything.
• If it is not a marriage, you are unmarried, and “single” (or “divorced,” if you were once married) is the accurate marital status. Answer each partner question exactly as it is asked, and list a past partnership where the form asks for one.
• Bring the proof to the interview. Because the form has no explanation box, the interview is where you explain. Bring the registration certificate or the termination record and the legal basis for your answer. Expect the officer to ask, and answer directly.

The stakes run both ways. Knowingly calling a legal marriage “single” to keep a category is a willful misrepresentation of a material fact, which makes a person permanently inadmissible (INA § 212(a)(6)(C)(i)). A waiver exists, but it is discretionary and requires proving extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent. Even without any finding of fraud, a visa issued in the wrong category is no protection: in Coletti, the man who entered as an “unmarried son” was ordered deported because he had never qualified for the visa. But calling a partnership a marriage when the law does not treat it as one can cost an applicant a category they are entitled to keep. The right answer is the accurate one, and you have to do the legal work to know which one that is.

Can I fix the problem by ending the relationship before the interview?

Sometimes, and only in some categories. In F1, if a marriage converted your petition to F3, a legal divorce converts it back to F1, again keeping the original priority date (8 CFR § 204.2(i)(1)(iii)). In F2B, the marriage revokes the petition, and the regulation contains no provision bringing a revoked petition back to life if the marriage later ends. A divorce timed to an interview will also draw close questions about whether the relationship really ended. Get advice before you take any step that changes your marital status. Remember too that the rule keeps running after the interview: a marriage after the visa is issued, but before you travel to the United States, still costs you the category. An F2B petition is revoked, and an F1 petition converts to F3, so the visa in your passport can no longer be used.

How do I gather 15 years of travel history?

Start early and build the list from records, not memory. The travel question covers trips to every country other than the United States. Your U.S. trips go on a separate page of the form. Sources that work:

• Old passports. Entry and exit stamps are the backbone of the list. Find the expired passports before you start. You will also need their numbers for the new passport question.
• Airline accounts and email. Frequent-flyer histories and booking confirmations give exact dates and cities.
• Employer records. Travel and expense reports show business trips and answer the “who paid” field.
• Bank and card statements for trips you paid for yourself.
• Your U.S. entry record. For trips to the United States, CBP’s I-94 website shows your recent entries and exits, for the separate U.S. travel page.

Check the list against what you have told the U.S. government before: visitor visa (DS-160) applications, ESTA applications, the I-130 petition, and any earlier immigration filing. A trip on one form and not on another invites questions at the interview, and an unexplained gap can lead to a 221(g) refusal while the consulate sorts it out. If you cannot pin down a date, use your best documented estimate and keep the records that support it. Do not invent precision you do not have.

What else on the new form takes preparation?

Three more items catch people off guard. Siblings: gather full names, dates of birth and nationalities for every brother and sister, including half, step and adopted siblings. The form allows “do not know” for a date of birth, so use it honestly rather than guess. Employers: fifteen years of jobs, with addresses, supervisors and dates, now applies to every applicant over 14, including many people who were never asked before. Nationalities and passports: list every nationality you have held, even one you renounced, and every passport from the last fifteen years. If a passport number is lost, the form lets you say so.

Some practical habits from our own consular practice. Complete the personal, passport and nationality pages first, because they are short and the rest of the form builds on them. Leave the travel and employment pages for last, after your worksheet is finished. Draft every answer in a document before you type it in. Save constantly: the State Department’s DS-260 FAQs warn that the system logs you off after about 20 minutes of inactivity and anything not saved is lost. Before you press submit, print or save the full review page and read it as the officer will.

What should I do before I start the DS-260?

If you are single and have never had a partner, the new form is mostly a records project. Start the travel and employment worksheet now. If you are in an unmarried category and you have, or have had, a civil union, a registered or domestic partnership, a common-law relationship, or a religious or traditional marriage that was never registered, talk to a lawyer before you answer the marital-status and partner questions. That is the one place on the new DS-260 where a quick answer can cost you a category you have waited years for. Most other gaps on the form can be fixed with records and patience, as long as every answer is true.

The DS-260 is one step in a longer process. Our consular processing guide walks through the full path from the National Visa Center to the interview, including the public charge changes at consulates in fall 2026. To see where your case stands, see how to check your visa case status. If you want us to review your answers before you submit, contact us.