You must apply for an ESTA online to enter the USA after 12 Jan 2009

I have just returned from Las Vegas and thought i'd like to give an update on the ETSA process.

1. Both myself and wife filled out the electronic ETSA form weeks before our departure date. All good, got a reference number on screen and a message saying "there is NO NEED to print off this form". needless to say we wrote the Ref down because you just know what will happen

2. On the flight were told that we still had to fill in the ususal green and white forms which we duly did. This was a godsend and saved us loads of time on landing as many others had taken up the stance of "I was told i didnt have to fill in both,I'm not doing it" He He wrong!!!

3. As we had filled in our forms we were at the front of the queue. The very nice border control person scanned my wifes passport and said the ETSA wasnt recognised but mine was. We didnt have the ETSA ref number to hand which he said was fine but in future they may start charging if you dont have one so bring it along next time.

We passed through and had an absolute blast in Vegas.

My conclusions from my experience are these:

1. They DONT send you back if you havnt filled in an ETSA or they have no record of it
2. You DO still need to fill out the Green and White forms BEFORE landing
3. It would be prudent to PRINT of your ESTA refence number and confirmation.

Arcana wrote: »

EDIT: apparentely is wasn't a requirement to fill out that field, so I completed the form.

How long does it take to get it authorised?
I realised that my boarding airport is not in UK as I'll be changing plane in Amsterdam, so I'll need to change that. Shouldn't be a problem I hope.

I'm actually wondering if the application went through as after clicking "next" I was taken back to the initial page without any sort of confirmation. Is that the usual way?

It's usually virtually instantaneous but can take up to 72 hours.

You can check if it was successful by applying again - it will tell you if an ESTA already exists for your passport

Changing in Amsterdam will not be a problem

dzug1 wrote: »

It's usually virtually instantaneous but can take up to 72 hours.

You can check if it was successful by applying again - it will tell you if an ESTA already exists for your passport

Changing in Amsterdam will not be a problem

Ok. Will try again tonight.
I read somewhere in this thread that you don't receive an email confirmation. How on earth will you then know if you've been authorized?

Do you mean, "physically changing in Amsterdam is not a problem" (despite only having 1 hour to get from one plane to the other), or did you mean that "even though I put a UK airport and my last point of departure before arriving in US is Amsterdam - it's not a problem. Just leave it as it is".
Or did you in fact mean "it's not a problem changing that on the form".

blindman wrote: »

You still need to fill out the I95 Visa Waiver form (Green) on board:rolleyes:

That depends on the airport you're flying to. Yes it's worthwhile doing it just in case, but apparently some airports have sufficiently updated their systems and are allowing entry using ESTAs for people who have them, and the green forms are being discarded unread.