If you want to travel to the United States, you will need the ESTA USA application, which is the USA visa to enter in the country as a tourist. In today's article, we will tell you how to apply for it online, as well as the requirements to apply for it and the most important features.
The 10 steps to apply for the ESTA
- Once inside the ESTA application website you have to click on the NEW APPLICATION -> INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION / GROUP APPLICATION button. If you are traveling with two or more people you can choose this second option to simplify the process and make the payment only once (the price is the same as two individual applications).
- A security notification appears informing about the use of the security system that we must confirm and continue.
- The first step is to fill in the group contact information. Basically, it is the profile of the person who will handle the requests of the whole group. The "Organization" section is not mandatory and you can leave it blank.
- We will have created a group with its ID number, we will receive an e-mail with this information, which we will need to check the status of the requests in the future.
- The next step is to add the requests of all the travellers, including the one that appears as the group contact. To do this click on ADD NEW REQUEST. We will have to accept the legal terms where we inform that you could be stopped at the border and not be accepted in the U.S. regardless of having the ESTA. And then accept the payment conditions of the service (10$ for the authorization and 4$ for the use of the platform, which means that if the application is not approved you will only have to pay 4$).
- The next step is to enter the applicant's data. It is not very complicated. To speed up the process you will have to upload the photo of the main page of the passport. After uploading the passport photo, you will be asked if the data you have recognized are correct, it will automatically add them to the corresponding spaces, although you can modify them. Check the data and fill in the fields with red asterisk, which are mandatory.
- The next step is to add your travel and contact information in the U.S. If you do not have friends living there, you can enter the address of the accommodation where you will be staying for a few nights. You also have the option to put UNKNOWN if you don't know it yet.
- Next we will have to answer YES or NO to a series of typical questions for the security of the country. Please note that if you have recently travelled to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen you may have problems for your application to be accepted.
- The final step is to review the application and confirm it. Click on "confirm and continue in each section". At the end, we will have to enter our passport data again as a security mode.
- We will have finished with the data of the first applicant if we are with the group mode. If you are making the individual application, you will go directly to the payment platform. If you are in the group mode, this is the moment to enter the data of the second and successive applicants, in the same way as the previous one, by clicking on ADD NEW APPLICATION.
Is it possible to process an ESTA express?
If for any reason you need to process the ESTA expressly (or even if you have arrived at the airport and you have just realized that you need this document) there are ways to obtain it in just one hour, and all online.
All you have to do is go to the emergency ESTA application website and fill in the form with your personal data, pay (it is a special service that has a cost associated with it) and in just one hour if everything goes well you will receive your approved ESTA.
The characteristics of the ESTA are exactly the same as the normal one, what you get is to save the time of the approval process.
