CEAC DS160 Form Site Issues?

[JLCDN 6]

Hi guys! I am curious if anyone who is applying for a K1visa and are filling out the DS-160 form are having issues with the rapid session timeouts, crashing and just not saving sections properly? 

My case is finally at the Consulate in Montreal (14 months later but woo!) And I'm trying to get a jump on the application early so I have it all ready to submit when the time comes, however the frustration is real with the consistent  issues with the CEAC website. I am using a Mac with High Seirra and the latest version of Chrome. My fiancee even tried as well and the same problem.  Saved the files to my desktop and on the server and same issue. Tried different browsers and platforms and nada.It only seems to be the Work and Education History that is not saving correctly and crashing when it does. I have not contacted the Consulate yet regarding the glitchy site, but  wanted to know if anyone else is having the same problem before I have them file a tech ticket. Thanks all for any input and if I am not the only one! 

Cheers!

Jen

[Greenbaum 12,259]

4 hours ago, JLCDN said:

Hi guys! I am curious if anyone who is applying for a K1visa and are filling out the DS-160 form are having issues with the rapid session timeouts, crashing and just not saving sections properly? 

My case is finally at the Consulate in Montreal (14 months later but woo!) And I'm trying to get a jump on the application early so I have it all ready to submit when the time comes, however the frustration is real with the consistent  issues with the CEAC website. I am using a Mac with High Seirra and the latest version of Chrome. My fiancee even tried as well and the same problem.  Saved the files to my desktop and on the server and same issue. Tried different browsers and platforms and nada.It only seems to be the Work and Education History that is not saving correctly and crashing when it does. I have not contacted the Consulate yet regarding the glitchy site, but  wanted to know if anyone else is having the same problem before I have them file a tech ticket. Thanks all for any input and if I am not the only one! 

Cheers!

Jen

People have reported this many times and if I recall they recommend using a different browser and to save your work along the way. I read where they prefer IE 8.0 or above but try different ones or a different computer.

[Eddie P 2]

5 hours ago, JLCDN said:

Hi guys! I am curious if anyone who is applying for a K1visa and are filling out the DS-160 form are having issues with the rapid session timeouts, crashing and just not saving sections properly? 

My case is finally at the Consulate in Montreal (14 months later but woo!) And I'm trying to get a jump on the application early so I have it all ready to submit when the time comes, however the frustration is real with the consistent  issues with the CEAC website. I am using a Mac with High Seirra and the latest version of Chrome. My fiancee even tried as well and the same problem.  Saved the files to my desktop and on the server and same issue. Tried different browsers and platforms and nada.It only seems to be the Work and Education History that is not saving correctly and crashing when it does. I have not contacted the Consulate yet regarding the glitchy site, but  wanted to know if anyone else is having the same problem before I have them file a tech ticket. Thanks all for any input and if I am not the only one! 

Cheers!

Jen

Hi Jen,

We just did it a week ago and yes it was a crazy rollercoaster. We were using a mac as well, with Chrome. Here's what worked for us, (there were a ton of visits to the US and that's where we ran into the most problems) so we would add about 4 things, then his the 'NEXT' button, then save, then exit and go in again. When we got back to the screen to add more US visits, the ADD + button would be greyed out. So, we REMOVED - the last one we put in and voila, the ADD + button would show up and we would race to get about 4 more trips catalogued, then hit the NEXT button, then saved, then exited then came back in and kept going til it was finished. As soon as it says "YOU HAVE 1 MORE MINUTE BEFORE TIMEOUT" (or whatever it says) you're a dead duck, get out as fast as you can but the trick is to save and exit before you see that pesky warning.

[MeghanK 629]

Yeah the DS-160 is a bit infuriating, lol. Like @Eddie P said, we also had MAJOR issues on the U.S. visit part since we had so much to log. Same tactics worked for us.

 

One other trick that MIGHT work if this is an issue for your saving efforts... If you are experiencing issues because you have a ton of addresses and such to put in, and it won't let you save regularly - make sure if there are any questions AFTER that section within that page, they are all filled in as well before saving.

 

I remember wanting to rip my hair out because entering the U.S. visits would not actually save. Then I realized we were getting a bunch of errors in red font every time we thought we saved ("please fill in all answers" type message) and that was due to the questions after U.S. entries. So we completed those, then scrolled back up, to keep adding more visits, and magic, it let us save after each entry. Instead of the red error text it would take us to a formal "successful save" page with some buttons to "exit" "continue" etc. Once you see those you should know it ACTUALLY saved your work.

 

But even that was still kind of a nightmare with the timing out every 5 minutes or so. We tried multiple browsers and computers and nothing helped. 

[JLCDN 6]

Hmm. Good to know I am not the only one  losing my mind with this frustration! I save pretty regularly and the main issue seems to stem from the work and education history now. The past US visits and the rest of the application seem to be ok. Luckily the form only needs the last 5 trips ( from what I read in the instructions) so hopefully I can chill and tackle the rest calmly  tomorrow

In order to even get to the work and education history, you have to go forward to the next page (do you belong to a clan or tribe page) then hit the previous page at the bottom before ed and work history will even make it's appearance!  Aggravating for sure but thank you guys for all the really helpful tips and info so far! It helped a lot and good luck to everyone waiting for their Interviews! We are all in the home stretch now finally! ❤️ 

[bolero_pa 34]

We had real problems with this page of the DS-160. Everything was working fine with clicking through the DS-160 form until we reached the “Work / Education / Training“ page. Once completed and save was clicked, the server displayed an error and would not allow us to move past this page into the next section. I read everything I could on VisaJourney and searched the entire internet for an answer. I tried many tricks like moving back and deleting that page and starting over and re-saving. I spent several hours trying EVERYTHING. Finally, at 4am I gave up exhausted. My only thought was to take a break and try later. I tried the next day, same error, gave up. Tried the next day, nothing gave up. Finally, after 48 hours the form allowed us to log back onto the half-completed form and move past that page.

 

Something about the form is dysfunctional and must require an additional script to be run manually by the site administrators or it’s run automatically a few times a week?  I really cannot explain why it works or doesn’t. I could go on speculating… The error message does explain that there is an error and it will be examined and there is nothing more you need to do. It’s just not enough information when you’re hoping to get the form submitted..

My best advise is if you encounter that error, go ahead and complete the “Work / Education / Training“ page as best you can, save it, then take a break. Try again every 12 hours until it’s fixed. There’s nothing you can do once you get that error so don’t beat yourself over the head.

 

By law the beneficiary ids required to click the final submit button, so it’s probably wise to have her do that phase even though it’s often inconvenient. I know it’s difficult to be patient. This is just another thing that will strengthen your skills at patience… Good luck!