Travel to New York this Thursday for the 1st time - some advice

Mike12421

Hello again,
as the title states, I travel to New York on Thursday with my partner for a long weekend.

This is the first time either of us has travelled to America, and so I just wanted to quickly check a few things.

Both of our passports are "non machine readable", as they were issued several years ago, however neither expire until December 2010. Will there be any problems with this, as I have seen a lot of people talking about "chipped" passports etc. We have both registered on the ESTA site and where both accepted a number of months back with no problems. What other forms will we be required to complete? Will any need to be done prior to flying?

Whilst we are on the subject of ESTA. I "stupidly" forgot to write down our application numbers once they had been processed, and now I cannot log in to the site without them in order to print a copy off for the flight. I have checked with the ESTA site, but there does not appear to be any sort of customer service e-mail/contact for them.

Any advice that anyone can provide would be very much appreciated, as you can imagine I have a lot to sort out before Thursday. Just got my money changed however.....don't get a great deal now do you? 1.4?

Thanks.

BillTrac

Mike,

check your passports again. Our passports expire 2010 as well and as long as the passport has the coding along the edge of the page then you are good to go. We have been to NYC and Washington DC in the last two years with no problems with our passports.

We are off to Las Vegas in May so need to complete the ESTA. Is there a restruiction on the number of times you complete an ESTA? Just wonderd if you could re-do it and use that reference number, maybe?

Mike12421

Thank for getting back to me.
My passport has two lines of text running along the bottom (under my picture). The first line is made up of my full name and <<<<<<<<<<<<
The second line is made up of my date of birth, passport number and more <<<<<<<<<<<<
Is this ok?

As for applying for a second time, I thought of this, but I didn't want to chance messing up my first "approved" application.

Cheers, Mike.

M4RKM

IIRC, when you do your esta it says you don't actually need to print anything off etc... so you should be absolutely fine...

however, you'll not be able to go back in to update it when you go back within 2 years...

haven't you got the email?

M

matthew74

You don't need to do anything else - you will just need to fill in a green visa waiver form each and a customs declaration form each - these will be handed out on board the aircraft. Take your time and get them right, or you may end up with a delay on arrival.

Pssst

New York New York....its a wonderful town....! tum tee tum

Have a great trip. By the way,the view from the Rockefeller centre is better than from the Empire state. You get to see over central park and the queues are a lot shorter and sometimes non existant.

LeeSouthEast

Your passport should be OK, it is "machine readable" (that's what all the <<<<< nonsense is). Have a chat with your travel agent if you have any concerns.

Most of all HAVE FUN! It's an amazing city, and you'll have the time of your life.

M4RKM

Pssst wrote: »

New York New York....its a wonderful town....! tum tee tum

Have a great trip. By the way,the view from the Rockefeller centre is better than from the Empire state. You get to see over central park and the queues are a lot shorter and sometimes non existant.

hints and tips like this are covered in the dedicated new york thread at the top of this forum!!!

Mike12421

Thanks everyone for all getting back to me.

I've got a day off, so I thought what beter way to spend it than by worrying about nothing

See you all next week...broadway here I come!