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The glitch: why L2 never appears in the portal
When you add a dependent — your spouse, your child, or both — to your L1 visa application on the US visa scheduling portal, you will notice something confusing: the portal never gives you the option to select L2 as their visa category. It just keeps showing L1. Many applicants stop right there, convinced they have done something wrong, and spend hours trying to fix a problem that does not exist on their end. This is a glitch in the portal itself. It simply does not surface the L2 category option. You are not missing a step.
What to do instead
Select L1 for your dependents anyway, pay the visa fee, and book the appointment. Do not wait for an L2 option that will never appear. Two things matter once you do this.
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Book a Mock Interview1. Make sure the DS-160 has the correct category
Even though the scheduling portal forces you to select L1, your dependent's DS-160 form must correctly reflect L2 as their visa category. The DS-160 is where the actual record lives, so get that right before you go any further.
2. Inform the biometrics centre on the day
When you go in for biometrics, tell the staff that you could not select L2 in the portal and that your dependent was booked under L1 as a result. They can update the category to L2 from their end in the backend system. This is a known issue and they can handle it — but you need to flag it proactively.
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