Forms

Form DS-260

Also called DS-260, Electronic Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration.

Form DS-260, Electronic Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration, is the Department of State application an EB-5 applicant files when taking the consular route, the counterpart to Form I-485 for someone who will collect an immigrant visa abroad rather than adjust status inside the United States.

What it decides

22 CFR 42.63(a)(1) requires every immigrant visa applicant to apply on Form DS-230 or Form DS-260 as the consular officer directs, and says that requirement may not be waived; DS-260 is the electronic form the Department now uses. Each applicant files their own, though a parent, guardian or person with legal custody may execute it for an applicant under 14 or one physically incapable of completing it, under 42.63(a)(2). In practice it is submitted through the National Visa Center once the petition is approved and a visa number nears. Fingerprints come before execution under 42.67(c), personal appearance is required under 42.62(a) with a discretionary waiver for a child under 14, and the applicant swears to the form biometrically before a consular officer at the interview under 42.67(a)(3). Where to apply follows residence under 42.61(a). The fee is a State charge, $345 per employment based applicant under 22 CFR 22.1, item 32(b), which is why no USCIS fee schedule shows it.

Governed by 22 CFR 42.61(a), 42.62(a), 42.63(a)(1) and (a)(2), 42.67(a)(3) and 42.67(c), read through the eCFR renderer API because www.ecfr.gov/current redirects an automated fetch; 22 CFR 22.1, item 32(b), for the $345 employment based immigrant visa application processing fee. travel.state.gov was not used: that host returns an identical block page for every path, so nothing fetched from it would prove anything.

Where this is explained properly

Pages here that go into form ds-260 rather than mentioning it.

Related terms

Consular processingConsular processing is the route to permanent residence through a US embassy or consulate abroad, on Form DS-260 and an interview, rather than by adjusting status inside the United States. It is the only route for an investor who stays outside the country, and it is open by choice to one already inside.
National Visa CenterThe Department of State office that holds an approved EB-5 petition, collects the visa fees and supporting documents, and notifies the investor as a visa number nears, in the gap between petition approval and the consular interview. It handles only investors who will apply for the visa abroad; an investor adjusting status inside the United States never passes through it.
Form I-485Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, is the application by which someone already inside the United States becomes a permanent resident without going abroad for a consular interview; an EB-5 investor who files it receives the same two year conditional residence a consular applicant gets on admission.
Adjustment of statusAdjustment of status is the process under 8 U.S.C. 1255 by which someone already in the United States becomes a permanent resident without leaving, on Form I-485, instead of collecting an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad. An EB-5 investor who adjusts is granted conditional permanent residence for two years, the same status a consular applicant receives on admission.
Form I-551Form I-551, the Permanent Resident Card or green card, is the document 8 CFR 264.1(b) lists as evidence of alien registration for a lawful permanent resident, and an EB-5 investor's first one is issued with a two year expiry because the residence it evidences is conditional.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary