Custom Domains

Serve client intake on your agency's own subdomain instead of ds160.io: add the domain, create a CNAME record, verify DNS and SSL, and share branded links.

Custom domains let your clients fill in their DS-160 intake on an address like intake.your-agency.com instead of ds160.io/client-intake/.... Combined with whitelabel branding, the experience looks like your own product.

Prerequisites. This is for the Owner of a Business workspace — the Custom Domain card is not shown to anyone else. You also need access to the DNS settings of the domain you want to use.

Add the domain in your workspace

Open Workspace Settings → Branding and find Custom Domain. Type the subdomain you want to use under Domain — for example intake.your-agency.com — and click Add Domain.

Example: how this looks on the platform

Add the DNS record

The card now shows your domain as Pending Verification, with the record to add under DNS Configuration Required. In your DNS provider’s dashboard, add a CNAME record for your subdomain (for example intake) that points at the target shown there. Most providers apply it within a few minutes; some take up to an hour.

Example: how this looks on the platform

Verify DNS and SSL

Once the record has propagated, click Verify DNS. If it has not taken effect yet, the card says what it found instead — no CNAME record, or one pointing somewhere else — and you can try again later.

When DNS passes, the domain is marked Verified and we set up the SSL certificate for it. Until that is ready the card shows SSL Pending; click Verify SSL to check again. When the card shows Verified and SSL Active, the domain is live.

Example: how this looks on the platform

Once the domain shows Verified and SSL Active, every new client link from this workspace uses it — the Shareable Link on the Create Client Link page, and the links you email with Send client link. Links created before then keep the ds160.io address they were made with, and keep working.

Removing a custom domain

Click Remove Domain on the same card and confirm. Links you create afterwards use the ds160.io address again. Links you already sent on your domain depend on your DNS record, so if you also delete the CNAME record they stop working — send those clients a new link.