Don't type personal details, such as a client's name.
Immigration Firm Quickstart
Set up DS160.io for your immigration firm: add your attorneys and paralegals, keep attorney review before signing, bring over open cases from Docketwise or CEAC, and file your first DS-160.
This guide takes an immigration firm from sign-up to its first filed DS-160, with the attorney’s review kept in place: we fill in the official DS-160, and your attorney checks it on CEAC and signs it there. If your cases are in Docketwise today, you bring the open ones across from their PDFs instead of retyping them. Your first form is free.
Before you start
- Who sets it up: the person who signs up becomes the workspace’s Owner. Choose the person who will hold the card on file, usually the managing attorney or the office manager.
- A card: a business workspace needs a card on file before it is active. You are not charged at sign-up, and the first form you create is free. See Payment Method and Your Free First Form.
- Your team’s accounts: everyone you add needs a DS160.io account of their own.
- One open case to try: a Docketwise DS-160 PDF, or the Application ID of a DS-160 already on CEAC.
1. Sign up your firm
Open the business sign-up form, or click Test your next DS-160 for free on the immigration firms page. Fill in:
- Firm or agency name: shown to your clients as the name behind their form and their emails.
- Workspace name: what your team sees in DS160.io.
- What best describes you?: choose Immigration firm.
- Expected DS-160s per month, and the Owner’s email and password.
Enter the 6-digit code we email you, then add a card on the billing screen that follows. The workspace is active once the card is saved.
2. Add your attorneys and paralegals
Open Workspace Settings → Team & access, click Add Member, enter a colleague’s email and pick a role. There is no per-seat charge.
| Who | Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Paralegals and case managers | Member | Open, create and edit every form, message clients and review answers. |
| Attorneys who manage the workspace | Admin | Also invite clients, assign forms, change the firm’s settings and get Ready for review emails. |
Assign each form to the person handling it, so the client’s messages reach them. See Team Members.
3. Keep the attorney’s review before signing
Signing a DS-160 cannot be undone, so most firms have an attorney check the application before it is filed. Open Workspace Settings → E-Filing, turn on Stop before signing under Review Before Signing, and click Save. Every submission then stops on CEAC’s Sign and Submit page as Ready to sign, with a PDF of every page, for the attorney to review and sign on ceac.state.gov.
See Reviewing a DS-160 on CEAC Before Signing.
4. Answer the firm’s questions once
On the same E-Filing page, set the answers that are the same on every form:
- Preparer of Application Defaults: your firm’s name and address, the preparer’s name, and the relationship to the applicant. The DS-160’s preparer section then disappears from client forms and we fill it in. See Preparer of Application Defaults.
- Security Question Answer: a random answer for every form, or one answer your firm uses for all its clients. See Security Question Answer.
5. Bring over your open cases
On the Forms screen, click New DS-160 form and choose what the form starts from:
- Import from Docketwise: print the client’s DS-160 smart form from Docketwise to PDF and upload it. See Importing a DS-160 from Docketwise.
- Import from CEAC: read a DS-160 already started or filed on CEAC with its Application ID. See Importing a DS-160 from CEAC.
- A copy of a form: for a returning client whose earlier form is already in DS160.io.
Every import shows what will come across before the form is created, and lists what to check afterwards.
6. Collect answers from new clients
For a new client, start from A blank form, type the client’s email and leave Email the client a link when the form is created ticked. The client answers in their own language on a secure link from your firm, and your team reads the answers in English. You can ask for their consent to a privacy notice in your firm’s name first, and remind them automatically if they don’t open the link.
See Emailing Clients Their Intake Link and Asking Clients for Consent.
7. Review, file and keep the record
- When the client finishes, Owners and Admins get a Ready for review email. Open the form, read the answers beside their English, and correct anything. See Reviewing a Client’s Answers.
- Click View Submissions, pick the embassy or consulate, and click New Submission. We fill in every page on CEAC and enter its security codes; only if CEAC refuses ours do we email you to type one.
- The submission stops as Ready to sign. The attorney reads the PDF, opens the application on ceac.state.gov with the Submission Details, and signs it there.
- Keep the confirmation page from CEAC with the client’s file. Download PDF on the form gives a numbered PDF of its answers under your firm’s name. See Downloading a Form as a PDF.
Expected result
Your team is in one workspace, the firm’s preparer details and security answer are set once, open cases are imported, and each DS-160 waits as Ready to sign for the attorney. If a submission stops for another reason, see Fixing a Submission That Did Not Finish.
Next steps
- Put your logo and name on client links and emails under Workspace Settings → Branding.
- Serve client links on your firm’s own domain: Custom Domains.
- Send client emails from your firm’s address: White-Label Email (SMTP).
- Keep a family’s forms together: Groups of Forms.