I made a mistake in my date of birth on the DS-260 for the DV — what will happen at the green card interview?

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1

I won the DV lottery. When filling out the DS-260 I discovered that I entered the wrong date of birth — I put 24.04 instead of 25.04. Can this be corrected or is it already too late? What do they check at the green card interview — will they notice such a mistake and what happens because of it? I don’t know whether I should continue at all or accept it as a sign that it’s not meant to be.

2

The DS-260 can be edited before submission — log in to your account and save it again.

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3

Well, it’s not a disaster, but fix it for sure — at the interview they check every digit against your passport. That’s how it started with mine — they asked me to state my date of birth and address. While the form hasn’t been submitted yet, just open it and save it again. You’ll get through it)

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4

The DS-260 can be edited until submission — just open the form and save it again.

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5

Look, one wrong day in the date of birth isn’t a “minor typo” to an officer — it’s a discrepancy between the application and the passport. Technically that falls under misrepresentation under INA 212(a)(6)(C) — essentially a distortion/falsification of information when obtaining a visa document, even if the mistake was accidental. That’s exactly why you fix it before submitting, rather than hoping they won’t notice.

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6

There’s a nuance with 212(a)(6)(C) — that section requires willful misrepresentation, i.e. intentional deception to obtain a visa document. A one-day typo that you correct yourself before finalizing the application form doesn’t fall under that — there’s no intent to mislead, and the correction is documentary evidence of that. A colleague had a similar case with the entry date in their form — the officer at the interview simply asked to clarify the chronology, saw the correction had been made before submission, and closed the matter on the spot.

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7

Fair point about willful — roughly speaking, yes, intent is required; a random typo doesn’t qualify under 212(a)(6)(C). But at the interview the officer sees your application for the first time, and they don’t have a mandate to probe intent — a date discrepancy with your passport is an automatic question per the guidance. Why invite that conversation if you can fix it before submitting?

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8

Fix it now — an interview is not the place for explanations.

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