Your historyQuestion 1 of 11
“Any relatives in the US?”
The short answer
Visiting your son or daughter is a normal reason to apply for a US visitor visa. The State Department lists "visit with friends or relatives" as a B-2 purpose. The risk is in hiding them. The DS-160 FAQ warns that false or misleading statements "may result in the permanent refusal of a visa." So answer the question you’re asked, truthfully, and then stop.
The advice going around
The advice going round is to say no
Parents are told that a son in New Jersey is what gets a visa refused, so the safe answer is no. It runs the other way. Visiting relatives is one of the listed reasons to apply for this visa, and a false answer is a different kind of problem from a weak application: a weak application can be made again, while a finding of false information need not expire.
At the window
The same question, answered two ways
What most people say
“No sir! Nobody. Zero.”
What works
“Sorry sir. Yes. Our son lives in New Jersey. We are going to visit him.”
Visiting your son? Normal. Hiding him? That’s the problem.
His inner voice · episode 1
Check it yourself
What the embassy actually publishes
Visiting relatives is a listed reason to apply for a US visitor visa
False statements on a US visa application can end in permanent refusal
may result in the permanent refusal of a visa or denial of entry into the United States
Read 13 October 2026
The rule behind it
What the law actually says
A US visa application starts from the assumption that you intend to stay
The officer does not start from neutral. The law tells them to assume you intend to stay, and the burden is on you to show otherwise. That is why almost every question is a way of asking the same thing: what brings you back.
Every alien [ … ] shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for a visa [ … ] that he is entitled to a nonimmigrant status.
What we can and cannot do
We are licensed for Canada (RCIC R710507). We help with US visitor visa applications, and for US legal advice a US-licensed immigration attorney is the person to ask.
Where this stops
What this page does not claim
This page does not say that naming relatives makes a visa likely, and it makes no claim about how the DS-160 asks the question. That form sits behind a login and only third-party guides quote its wording, so nothing here rests on it.
Keep going
The rest of the interview
Before the window
Send us the file before the interview, not after.
We read the DS-160 against what the officer will ask, tell you which answers are doing you harm, and say plainly where the gaps are. If the honest answer is that nothing is wrong, we say that too.
Three fields · about 30 seconds