Up until now, the procedure for gaining admittance to the US for UK citizens without full US visas has been fairly straightforward: each individual completes the green I-94 form, and each party completes the Customs declaration. However, from 9th January 2009, this will be changing.
The I-94 will be phased out, to be replaced with an online application system, ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). This will enable prescreening of passengers, while also cutting down on the paperwork that needs to be processed at immigration.
Each member of your party must now fill in a web form no later than 3 days before travel (the application itself is valid for 2 years after registration, or until expiry of your passport, whichever comes first).
To start, visit https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html?language=en – you’ll be wanting to Apply for Authorization, so click the grey Apply Button in the left hand column. Read and approve the disclaimer, and then you’ll be ready to apply.
Those who have visited the US before using the green I-94 form will find the questions here familiar, although note that Travel Information and your Address details are considered optional. Usually, if you’re on a fly-drive or similar, your travel company will provide an address to use in this instance. If on a tour, put down the address of your first night’s accommodation.
For any help queries, click on the question mark logo, or any of the blue underlined text.
Once completed, click Next.
The details will be presented again for you to double check, you may want to print this at this time, as I found there was no summary page after this point that was printable. Homeland Security don’t require a hard copy, just the application number, but I prefer to play it safe. [UPDATE 2/2009: there is a "print" icon which generates a summary page and prints it.]
Once submitted, the system will generate an Application Number – WRITE THIS DOWN! – I didn’t receive an email with this on, and it is necessary to check application status, or if you need to edit your application after filing (only certain elements will be updateable, though).
Proceeding further to Step 4, what normally happens is the system will give you an ‘Application Status’:
Authorization Approved, which means you are accepted for travel.
Travel Not Authorized, which means that you are prohibited from travelling under the Visa Waiver scheme, and should contact www.travel.state.gov, or the US embassy for a visa.
Authorization Pending, which means the Application has been referred to an agent for further processing. In this case, the application should be reviewed within 72 hours, and you can use the Application number to recheck the status.
You may have to fill in an I-94 form as well, depending on your airline and airport, but in theory, everything should be moving to the new system fairly quickly.
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