New ESTA US Electronic Visa Site

alanrowell

Does it accept passports with less than 6 months validity?

And what address do you put in if you are transitting the US?

hansi

peteukmcr wrote: »

Hi all

Just to let you know the ESTA site will now accept UK passports with more than 10 years validity at time of issue.

My application was approved and I am now authorised to travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Program (it does not guarantee admission) until 2010.

Excellent. Thank you for the post:beer:

hansi

alanrowell wrote: »

Does it accept passports with less than 6 months validity?

And what address do you put in if you are transitting the US?

First answer is "No" and the answer to your second question is in the explanatory notes.

hansi

peteukmcr wrote: »

Hi all

Just to let you know the ESTA site will now accept UK passports with more than 10 years validity at time of issue.

My application was approved and I am now authorised to travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Program (it does not guarantee admission) until 2010.

Me too! Did mine and Mrs Hansi's today.

alanrowell

hansi wrote: »

First answer is "No" and the answer to your second question is in the explanatory notes.

So they are reacting (sometimes) to feedback as the 2nd did not appear in the notes when I posted.

Now why do you think the US has abrogated an agreement that allowed UK passport holders to enter the US as long as it's valid on the day they leave the US?

hansi

I think they need to publicise this much more than they are doing as there will be a lot of very disappointed travellers in January.

spaceman5

dzug1 wrote: »

There does seem to be a change in passport requirements under this scheme - the site says that passports must be valid 6 months whereas previously this was not the case for UK citizens at least.

the 6 months thing as been in place for at least 2 years, we have just returned from florida, which we booked 14 months ago, and researched what we need to do before we booking, at least 6 months before that, and everything i read(and it was a lot) on the usa customs website, here and many other websites said that anybody wanting to travel to the usa on the vwp needs to have at least 6 months left on there passport, hence why the mrs had to get hers renenwed, otherwise we would not have gone to that expense as we probably wont be going abroad in the next 6-7 years again, Dave

hammy_the_hammer

spaceman5 wrote: »

the 6 months thing as been in place for at least 2 years, we have just returned from florida, which we booked 14 months ago, and researched what we need to do before we booking, at least 6 months before that, and everything i read(and it was a lot) on the usa customs website, here and many other websites said that anybody wanting to travel to the usa on the vwp needs to have at least 6 months left on there passport, hence why the mrs had to get hers renenwed, otherwise we would not have gone to that expense as we probably wont be going abroad in the next 6-7 years again, Dave

definitely hasn't been in place for 2 years.
i hope this didn't cost you any money

this appears to clarify it for you

http://london.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/sixmonth.html

poppie123

Well i have come across a MAJOR problem with ESTA and as of yet nobody seems to know what to do. I am in touch with someone from the US Customs and Border protection plus i emailed the website at the bottom of the ESTA page.

Here is what has happened to me, my own fault i know but even so. If you were on a plane filling in the form and you made a mistake you could just cross it out or ask for another form. This ESTA site does not allow you to do that.

Here goes:

Yesterday i attempted to submit our ESTA applications for when we visit for our holiday next year.

I filled in my application fine and that came back as authorization approved

However, I have made a mistake filling in my eldest Daughters ESTA. I put in all of her personal details (name, date of birth) correctly but by mistake i picked up the wrong passport and used her sisters passport number and dates.
I got a message saying Authorization approved.

Of course when i tried to submit her sisters application it said the passport number already exists, which it does because of my error, it was at this point i realised my mistake.

I read on the ESTA site (where you submit your application) on what to do if you make a mistake and this is what it said:

If an applicant makes a mistake when filling out the passport information, identifying biographic information, or eligibility questions, and he or she realizes the mistake only after having submitted the ESTA application, he or she will need to submit a new ESTA application.


So, i then did another application to correct the error for my eldest Daughter only this time using the correct passport number and dates from her own passport. This also gave her authorization to travel. So now technically she has 2 authorizations to travel, one with the wrong passport information and one with the correct passport information.

I still can't submit my other daughters application because it just keeps telling me that the passport number already exists.

I have no idea what i am supposed to do, the only option i could think of if i can't sort this out is to renew her passport so i get a new number. I do feel i really shouldn't have to do this though.

If anyone has any ideas on who the best people to contact are or if anyone knows people in high places so to speak who may know what i am supposed to do i would be really grateful.

hansi

The support people at ESTA are usually very helpful. Hope you get it sorted out. Your post also prompted me to ask, I know you have to put in the flght number when you travel, but do you have to do this every time you fly?