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DS-160 Travel Plans
This section asks what you intend to do in the United States, when, where you will stay — and who is paying for the trip. The last of those is the one with a statutory ground behind it, and it is the one applicants most often answer carelessly.
This page explains what the questions are for. It is not legal advice. If your finances are genuinely complicated, or someone else is funding your travel for reasons that need explaining, take advice before you file.
What the section covers
- The purpose of your trip and your intended arrival date and length of stay
- The address where you will stay in the United States
- Who is paying — yourself, another person, or an organisation
- Where applicable, details of that payer
Read the exact wording on the form. What follows is what sits underneath it.
The payer question maps to public charge
8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(4), read on Cornell's Legal Information Institute on 21 September 2026:
Any alien who, in the opinion of the consular officer at the time of application for a visa, or in the opinion of the Attorney General at the time of application for admission or adjustment of status, is likely at any time to become a public charge is inadmissible.
Note who the statute names first: the consular officer, at the time of application for a visa. This ground is not something that only happens later at a port of entry or at adjustment of status. It applies in the interview room.
The statute then sets out what must be weighed. At a minimum the officer shall consider the applicant's:
- age
- health
- family status
- assets, resources, and financial status
- education and skills
An affidavit of support under §1183a may also be considered.
"Who is paying for your trip" is the form's entry point into the fourth of those factors.
A timing point that will mislead people this month
On 20 July 2026 DHS rescinded its 2022 public charge regulations, effective 18 September 2026. We track it on recent U.S. visa rule changes.
It would be easy — and wrong — to read that as "public charge no longer matters for a visa."
What was rescinded is DHS's regulation governing how DHS applies the ground, which bears on admission and adjustment of status. The statutory ground in §212(a)(4) is untouched, and it names the consular officer explicitly. Consular adjudication runs under the statute and the Foreign Affairs Manual, not under the DHS rule that was rescinded.
If you are reading commentary about the rescission while filling in a DS-160, that commentary is probably about a different decision-maker than the one who will read your form.
The same facts, doing two different jobs
The five statutory factors above — age, health, family status, assets, education and skills — will look familiar if you have read about 214(b) and immigrant intent. They are largely the same facts an officer weighs when deciding whether you have shown you are entitled to nonimmigrant status.
They are doing different statutory work, though, and it is worth keeping them apart:
| Question | Ground | |
|---|---|---|
| 214(b) | Are you entitled to nonimmigrant status — will you leave? | 8 U.S.C. §1184(b) |
| Public charge | Are you likely at any time to become a public charge? | 8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(4) |
A refusal under the first is a 214(b) and is not a permanent bar. The second is a ground of inadmissibility. They are answered from overlapping evidence and are not the same finding.
Practical points
Name the payer accurately. If a relative, an employer or an institution is funding the trip, say so. A third-party payer is ordinary and expected in many categories; an inconsistency between who you say is paying and what the rest of your application shows is not.
The U.S. address is where you will actually be. A hotel you have booked, a relative's address, a campus. It is also the address that can end up on records tied to your admission.
Purpose should match your visa class. A B-1/B-2 answer describing work, or an F-1 answer describing something other than study, creates a problem the rest of the form cannot fix — see B-1 and B-2, and what each actually allows.
Frequently asked questions
Does public charge apply to a tourist visa?
The statutory ground applies at the visa stage — §212(a)(4) names the consular officer at the time of application for a visa. How heavily it features depends on the case.
The public charge rule was rescinded in September 2026. Does it still apply?
What was rescinded is DHS's 2022 regulation, effective 18 September 2026, governing how DHS applies the ground. The statute itself is unchanged and names the consular officer. See recent U.S. visa rule changes.
Is it bad if someone else pays for my trip?
No. Third-party funding is ordinary. What matters is that you state it accurately and that it is consistent with the rest of your application.
What if I do not know my U.S. address yet?
Give the best information you have — a booked hotel, a host's address, your institution. Do not invent one.
Are public charge and 214(b) the same thing?
No. They draw on overlapping facts but are different statutory questions: §1182(a)(4) asks whether you are likely to become a public charge; §1184(b) asks whether you are entitled to nonimmigrant status.
Does an affidavit of support help?
The statute says one under §1183a may be considered. It is not a cure-all and it is not required for most nonimmigrant applications.
Official sources
- 8 U.S.C. §1182 — inadmissible aliens, read 21 September 2026; public charge is at (a)(4)
- 91 FR 45324 — rescission of the 2022 public charge rule
- Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC)