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USTravelDocs: Which Country Site Is Yours, and How It Fits With the DS-160
USTravelDocs is not the DS-160. The DS-160 is the application form itself, filled in on the Department of State's CEAC site. USTravelDocs is a separate applicant service platform that many U.S. embassies and consulates use for the steps after the form: paying the visa application fee, booking the interview, and arranging document return.
It is not used everywhere. A large group of posts, including most of the Americas and the United Kingdom, use a different platform at ais.usvisa-info.com. Using the wrong one is the most common reason people cannot find their appointment options.
Check your post first. The system in use for a given country can change. Confirm on the embassy or consulate website for the place you will interview before creating any account.
The systems you might be sent to
| Platform | Address | Role |
|---|---|---|
| CEAC | ceac.state.gov | The DS-160 form itself. Everyone uses this. |
| USTravelDocs | ustraveldocs.com/<country code> | Fee and appointments for much of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa |
| usvisascheduling.com | usvisascheduling.com, sign-in at acs.usvisascheduling.com | Fee and appointments; also the support-email domain for many USTravelDocs countries |
| AIS | ais.usvisa-info.com/<locale> | Fee and appointments for much of the Americas, and the United Kingdom |
CEAC is always in the picture, because that is where the DS-160 lives. The others are alternatives to each other, not to CEAC.
Why more than one name for the same job. Applicant services are contracted
regionally and the arrangements change, so a post can move between platforms
and the older address may keep working, redirect, or stop. Our country guides
for India, the UAE, Japan, South Korea and a dozen others cite
ustraveldocs.com for the payment pages while giving support addresses at
usvisascheduling.com, which is exactly the sort of overlap that makes people
unsure which site is theirs. Treat your embassy's own link as the answer and
this page as orientation.
Which site is yours
The USTravelDocs address always follows the same shape: ustraveldocs.com/, then a two-letter country code, then a language. Based on the payment pages cited in our own country guides:
| Country | Code | Guide |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bangladesh | bd | Bangladesh |
| China | cn | China |
| Egypt | eg | Egypt |
| Hong Kong | hk | Hong Kong |
| India | in | India |
| Indonesia | id | Indonesia |
| Israel | il | Israel |
| Japan | jp | Japan |
| Jordan | jo | Jordan |
| Malaysia | my | Malaysia |
| Morocco | ma | Morocco |
| Nepal | np | Nepal |
| Pakistan | pk | Pakistan |
| Philippines | ph | Philippines |
| Saudi Arabia | sa | Saudi Arabia |
| South Korea | kr | South Korea |
| Sri Lanka | lk | Sri Lanka |
| Thailand | th | Thailand |
| Türkiye | tr | Türkiye |
| UAE | ae | UAE |
| Vietnam | vn | Vietnam |
Countries whose guides point to AIS at ais.usvisa-info.com instead include Mexico, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
The full list of country guides, with the exact payment route reviewed for each, is on the fee payment page.
What you actually do there
The order matters, and it trips people up.
- Complete and submit the DS-160 on CEAC. You cannot do anything useful on USTravelDocs without it.
- Keep the confirmation page. It carries a ten-digit confirmation number beginning with
AA, and a barcode. You need that number to schedule. - Create a profile on the applicant service site. This is a separate account from anything on CEAC, with its own email and password.
- Pay the visa application fee through the method that site offers for your country. Amounts and methods are on the fee payment page.
- Wait for the payment to activate. This is not instant. Bank transfers and cash payments commonly take one to two business days before the site will let you book.
- Book the interview, and choose how your passport comes back.
Common problems
"My DS-160 number is not recognised." Most often the form was saved but never submitted, so no confirmation number exists yet, or the number was read from the wrong document. It is on the confirmation page with the barcode, not on the application pages. See how to retrieve your DS-160.
"I cannot book an appointment after paying." The fee has almost certainly not activated yet. Check the activation timing for your payment method on your country guide before contacting anyone.
"I made a profile but there are no appointments." Availability is set by the post, not by the platform, and can be months out. Current waiting times are on visa wait times.
"I used the wrong country site." Profiles are per country. If you started on the wrong one, create a profile on the correct site; the fee receipt from a different country's system is not transferable.
"I need to change my DS-160 after paying." The fee is tied to your passport and the receipt, not to a specific DS-160. A corrected form gets a new confirmation number, which you then use when booking. Nothing about the fee is refunded or reissued.
Which login am I looking for?
There are several, they are unrelated to each other, and mixing them up is a common source of lost time.
- No DS-160 login exists. The form has no account and no password. You get a ten-character Application ID when you start, and that plus your security answer, surname and year of birth is how you return to an unsubmitted form. See retrieving your DS-160.
- The applicant service profile is the one with an email and password. It lives on whichever of the platforms above your post uses, and it is where the fee and the appointment happen.
- The profile is per country. A profile and a paid fee in one country's system do not carry to another.
- The SEVIS account on
fmjfee.comis separate again, and applies only to F, M and J applicants.
If a sign-in page is asking for something you have never created, you are almost certainly on the wrong one of these four.
Frequently asked questions
Is USTravelDocs the official site? It is the applicant service platform that many U.S. missions direct people to. It is not the Department of State's own website, and it is not where the DS-160 is completed. Always reach it through the link on your embassy or consulate's site rather than a search result.
Is USTravelDocs the same as CEAC?
No. CEAC at ceac.state.gov is the Department of State system where the DS-160 is filled in and submitted. USTravelDocs handles the fee, the appointment and document return for the posts that use it.
Do I need an account to fill in the DS-160? No. The DS-160 has no account or password at all. You get an Application ID when you start and use it to return to an unsubmitted form. The account comes later, on the applicant service site.
Does it cost anything to create a profile? No. The profile is free. The visa application fee is separate, and is paid through the site.
Why does my country use a different site? The Department of State contracts applicant services regionally, so the platform differs by post and occasionally changes. That is why the country guide for your post, and your embassy's own site, are the authority rather than any general list.
Sources
- Department of State, DS-160 information
- Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC)
- Country payment pages cited individually in each country fee guide