The USA is one of the most popular destinations for holidays as well as a top choice for foreigners who want to study or work there. However, travelling to the US means confronting the dread of filling out and applying for a US visa.

Depending on the purpose of your trip, the USA offers a variety of US visas. Among these, the temporary work visa and tourist visa are the most commonly applied for US visas from all over the world.

There are many instructions to follow when applying for a US visa, and if you don’t follow them precisely, your application may be rejected. Knowing how to fill out the form is critical, and there are a few components that some people may not understand. Writing your full name in Native Alphabet in DS-160 form is one such example. Not familiar with it? Here’s a quick explanation of what it’s all about.

The USA Visa DS-160 Form

If you’re not sure what a ‘DS-160 Form’ is, here’s a quick explanation.

The DS-160 Form is required to be filled out and submitted by a foreign national who does not intend to immigrate permanently to the US to be granted a visit visa. After successfully completing the DS-160 form and all associated paperwork and procedures, a non-immigrant visa is granted to those who are temporarily visiting the USA for a specific period of time.

This form should be filled and submitted online. It is available on the website of US Department of State Consular Electronic Application Centre and can be accessed by clicking at https://ceac.state.gov/GenNIV/Default.aspx

While applying, you need to respond to questions in each section relating to your personal information regarding yourself, your family, the reason for your trip to the US, details regarding the trip, and other information that supports your travel to the US. Once the application has been submitted, you must keep a hard copy of the application submitted confirmation, which you should bring with you to your scheduled appointment at the US Embassy to obtain your visa.

The reason this application is to be filled online is that it is easier, gives ample time to rectify and double-check your application before submission, and is quite streamlined to keep track and manage. It is crucial that you fill out this form accurately, completely, and the information you provide matches your supporting documentation. If there are any errors or discrepancies, the chances of visa delays or refusal are high.

Regarding Full Name in the Native Alphabet Option in DS 160 Form

When you start filling the application, the initial few questions on your DS 160 form application will be focussed on your personal identity, particularly your name. You need to enter your given name and last name in this section. The next column in this section requires you to enter your full name in Native Alphabet. Many applicants get confused by this question, not understanding what it means. Many do wonder ‘What is native alphabet?’. The US visa document is very meticulous about each and every question to be answered completely. For those who do not know what ‘Full Name in Native Language’ means can make them anxious about completing the US DS 160 form.

The applicant must enter their full name, including first, middle, and last names or surnames, in the DS 160 full name in native alphabet column using non-roman characters in script. Non-roman languages are those with scripts that use characters rather than the English alphabet. Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, and Tamil are a few examples of these. If you are born in a country with such native languages, you will need to fill the same in your DS-160 form.

For example, If you are a Chinese national, you will need to fill in your Full Name in Native Alphabet i.e. Chinese script and also click Yes for ‘Do you have a telecode that represents your name?’ option and fill in the Telecode surname and Telecode given names.

If you are a citizen of Spain and your name contains a special character that is not found in the English alphabet, for instance, if the name is ‘Señor’, then type “Senor” without the special accent in the given name field and ‘Señor’ in the Full name in native alphabets field.

If your name does not contain any special accents or non-roman characters, or the keyboard you are using to type in the application doesn’t support your native language, you can select the “Does not apply/Technology not available” checkbox. Hence, if the applicant leaves this information blank and uses the checkbox to explain why, it is accepted by the system. However, you cannot leave the column blank without selecting the checkbox. Furthermore, other than this column, the entire DS 160 form must be filled out in English only. This is the only time you are not required to use English.

Why is the Column ‘full Name in Native Alphabet’ Included in the Visa Form?

The sole reason of this column is to get clarity on the applicant’s full name. When filling out the surname and given name fields of the DS 160 online form, only the English alphabet is supported. As a result, if an applicant’s name has an accent that isn’t common in English, it may cause pronunciation issues or even spelling mistakes. You won’t be able to use special characters like ç or ñ, which represent accents in other languages, in the given names and surname section in DS 160 form.

If you enter these characters, the form will display an error and will not let you proceed further without fixing this error. Hence, you must type your name in plain English in the given name and surname fields and type the name with special characters or non-roman language in the ‘Full Name in Native Alphabet’ column.

Another reason is that the US Consulate does not want any physical courier or correspondence regarding your US visa to be lost or undelivered due to a language barrier. The ‘Full name in Native Language’ field and the Telecode will aid in physical correspondence for countries where English is not a widely spoken language.

Conclusion

The United States receives millions of visitors each year, the majority of whom are tourists or people on short-term visas. To make things easier, the DS 160 form is provided to applicants to be filled in online and as per their convenience. However, as the US visa DS 160 form can be filled only in English, to ensure that there is no error in the way your name is spelled or pronounced, the ‘Full Name in Native Language’ option is provided. It only applies to individuals whose names have a peculiar accent that the phonetics of the English language are unable to convey effectively and who therefore require the aid of their native language for better clarity.

Now that you know what this column in the US visa form mean, you can proceed with your US visa application with more confidence. At any time you do feel that the visa application form for US feels overwhelm, take help of an expert US visa consultant who will make the whole process hassle-free!