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As an example, the US DS-160 form ask for every country you’ve been to in the past 10 years. But… what’s the rationale for asking this? Some ideas I have:

  1. To enforce various travel bans, i.e. the VWP ban on visitors to Iran. But then why not just ask if you’ve been to Iran rather than for a full list of countries?
  2. To collect intelligence data. But if you’re an actual government agent, wouldn’t you cover your tracks and not say the truth?
  3. Because it’s an opportunity to reject you. The US government already knows where a lot of people in the world have traveled thanks to extensive intelligence databases so they can use this field to filter out people who lie about their history.
  4. Because “that’s how they always did it”. No official rationale exists, it’s just something done without too much thought.

An official explanation would be ideal but I’d also accept credible third party analysis if no good official reasoning exists.

JonathanReez
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  • Travel history is also an important point. "Why is USA/UK/any other country, the first country you are going to visit". They are definitely interested in estimating whether you are a genuine visitor or not. – Aak Jul 01 '21 at 15:40
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    You are listing only negatives, but it can be a positive. If you come from, say, Nigeria, but have traveled to several European countries several times with no issues, that’s a LOT better than if that’s your first time travelling out of the country. They can also use that to cross check things against the information they have or which you provide (your passport!) to weed out people who can’t even manage to provide a consistent story. – jcaron Jul 01 '21 at 16:50
  • @jcaron that could be a good answer if that's the official line of thinking – JonathanReez Jul 01 '21 at 16:52
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    It’s very difficult to know what the “official” line is. On the negative side, regarding your point 1, it’s much easier to ask for a full list and filter based on the current list of evil countries than updating the form every time the list changes… – jcaron Jul 01 '21 at 16:54
  • From the official point of view, asking which countries does not reveal anything about their interest: asking about specific countries does. – Weather Vane Jul 01 '21 at 16:58
  • @WeatherVane if that's the official justification (i.e. a former consular employee said this in an interview), I'll accept that as well – JonathanReez Jul 01 '21 at 17:01
  • Well, that's the point: they want to know XXX to issue a visa, not explain why. – Weather Vane Jul 01 '21 at 17:44
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    At least for the UK, they are interested in a pattern of travel that shows the applicant has previously complied with UK immigration law https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938632/visit-guidance-v10.0ext.pdf#page21. I imagine that’s common to other countries – Traveller Jul 01 '21 at 18:58

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