ESTA - US shutdown

parking_problems_3

Does anyone know if applications for ESTA have been affected by the federal shutdown? I've been trying to apply but the website is down. I'm not sure if this is a temporary glitch or if it won't be back until the issues are sorted

dzug1

There was a post this morning saying it was off the air followed shortly by another saying it was working

It is not supposed to be affected by the US budget tiff

pompeyrich

Booked one for Mrs PR ok on Sunday, panicked a bit as it said on a news site that passport and visa applications were affected but think that was US side.

Check HEREalthough seems to be down for maintenance at the moment, it was ok earlier

parking_problems_3

Thanks, I"ll just keep trying then

InsideInsurance

ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) is supposed to be a straight through system that does all the checks electronically and therefore short of it falling over and the IT staff not being around to fix it then it wouldnt be impacted by the shut down for the vast majority of people.

I dont know if any applications ever require a human intervention, I've only known one application not to go through straight away and that one did get approved within 5 minutes at 6am UK time on Xmas morning and I'd be surprised if there were any US staff working doing manual reviews at that sort of period.

parking_problems_3

Thanks, I was beginning to wonder if the lack of website maintenance meant you couldn't apply. Anyway the website is back up and working and ESTA all sorted