hello tamara_d,

you only need to apply for a visa if you dont meet the requirements of the visa waiver progromme. you will have to apply for your ESTA online, if you look at the first few pages of this topic you will find a link, i think. if you apply for it now, its free thats all you have to do as long as your excepted. its valid for 2 years & everyone needs one to travel unless they have a visa. its the same forms which you fill out on the plane which may have stopped now, not sure.

Thats great thank you very much for your help.

Link to ESTA application HERE

luci

Hi my family (husband and I and two boys aged 10 & 8 ) have just booked to go to Florida for two weeks in october. Thanks for the info about ESTA as I didn't know about that. I will apply online as soon as I can.

Is there anything else we need to do - what is APIS and is this something we need to complete?

Hi skyegal ... if you have booked a package holiday, the required APIS data should have been collected from you at the time by your tour operator. If you have booked flight only, it should have been collected at the time by the airline. The airline or tour operator would then pass that information on to US authorities. You will find more info about APIS in the first post on page 1 of this topic. If you are in any doubt over whether the data was collected at the time of booking, you should speak to your airline or tour operator.

David

Hi David. Thanks for that. We did book through Thomsons so think that the APIS will have been done then ... but will doublecheck.

Sorry if this has already been covered elsewhere, or if its a bit of a stupid question but I am not sure what to do about the ESTA.

Filled them out last year for our visit to Florida but sure if I have to apply and fill them out again as we are going to Florida again in August. Is it just worth doing them again to make sure we are covered?

Cheers in advance.

The ESTA lasts for 2 years so if there has been no change of details such as passport number then there is no need to do them again.

You can updated them with the new flight/accommodation details, but this is not compulsory.

luci

Spotted this item in Travel Trade Gazette. Yet another cost that will be going on holidays.

http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=3208370&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=3762939&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=3762939&C

fwh

Hello,

anyone seen the new form at the us embassy i think its the DS160, once you have filled it in it electronically submits your data to the embassy & they keep it on file, so if you regularly have to apply for visas, you can just update your form....

Jords if you read this have you made you appointment yet?

Hi Bubble
oh the performance....

Rang to make appt, kept me on the phone 17 mins, then said it's all new now you make appt after you have submitted docs, i.e they still take payment for appt but now they sit there telling you what you need to do etc etc tell you to get docs together the personal data sheet, acpo and court records, then you get an e mail from the embassy telling you to mail the documents no mention of the DS160(Which is currently unavailable so you have to use old 156 etc) once you have emailed docs bac to embassy then you get another email within 5 days telling you of what kind of appt you need, then you have to ring the opperator phone line again to make appt.
If i'd realised all this i'd have got the docs i.e the acpo ready b4 i phoned, as it is now i have only just sent off for acpo so till i get that bac i cant do anything, i guess in the long run it will improve things but right now i can't see how this is making things easier, so my suggestion to anyone else would be get your documants ready b4 you phone for appt, cos once you phone them they really only take the payment, they wont make you an appt till you have mailed those docs, and you cant do that till you have made the payment and received the e mail from the embassy requesting the docs, so either way ya have to phone that very expensive phone line twice.
Anyway acpo is in motion so once thats here i'll ring, my main problem is i can't locate one of my charge sheets, i have it just can't find it grrr not sure what to do, read the web site and it says you may submit sworn statement etc but i think thats only for arrests not if you were convicted, so i'll have to hope i find it, more stress.

Jords

Hey Jords,

yeah we had the same, had to ring twice, but i allready knew this, so i did have the documents ready, i think, but what happened with us, when i emailed them we waited about the 5 days & emailed to ask how much longer it would be & i got a confirmation email which i realised i didnt get before, so they hadnt even recieved the documents.... boo!! anyway i tried over 20 times, each time no confirmation email, so in the end i had to use my mums email address!! which got the confirmation straight away!! so that was a longer wait.... so make sure you get a confirmation email.
do you need court records? we only did the acpo certificate this time & last time, they never asked for anything else. i thought you only needed the court records if it was another country or not on your police certificate?
also on the phone i think i just kinda said i knew everything so he didnt keep me on fot too long only around 5 mins each time i think!! it was the same bloke when i rang back aswell.... lol
whats up with the ds160 then? i thought if you applied from beginning of march you had to use it? apparentley it saves your details ao if you have to reapply often you can just update the form!!
we waited a long time this time, about 22 weeks i think, however its a 12 month multiple entry visa this time!!

Hiya

When i rang other 2 times i was on phone max 7 mons, took payment confirmed details and that was it, this time he was reaaaaallllllllllyyyyyyyyyy slow and determind to keep me on phone for as long as pos, repeating all my details back to me even useing phonetic alphabet i.e t for tango blah blah, he was determind to make phone call as long as pos in my oppinion.

Other times when i have rang i have made appt then got acpo done whilst waiting etc, this time as i said ya need all those docs ready as when you phone you then get 2 emails, 1 confirming payment (MRV rec) then one requesting docs, which as i said i have only just sent off for acpo, the email gives instructions to send VCU 1 sheet ACPO and all court records if your ACPO states no trace or no live trace, which mine does, then they will mail me back telling me what type of appointment i require, then i have to ring to make actual appointment.
The DS160 is compulsery but it is not working at mo so ya have to fill in the other forms untill it is, i have not checked today so it maybe bac up and running but it wasn't last week at all.

I was just thinking to, after all this i will mail them the documents then get an email saying i need to see visa cordination officer, go to London for appt only to be told that day i cant have it as i need a waivier, what is the point? it is no different except now i am emailing them the stuff in advance so may not be in the embassy as long cos they have the details befor i arrive, surely it would be better to tell people in advance they are not elligable and then make your appt once the waivier is there then go and get issued on the day, either way this way is costing even more than before with the exact same outcome.

I love going to the US but it is getting beyond crazy now.

Whats everyone elses thought?

Jords

Yeah i do know what you mean, i did have one phone call like that aswell actually but i cant remember which time, lol.... yeah thats right as my husbands convictions are on the certificate he doesnt need court records whichs good!! we took those the first time & that was before the acpo came in, and im pretty sure they kept them!!

i do think its annoying you have to ring twice, as it is so expensive, i wish they would take payment details etc on first call as they do, then after you wait & get you email after submitting the documents you could select an interview date online or something which would be free!!

i do have to say though with this new process, when i rang back after i had emailed the documents etc & got an email to say ring & make the appointment, the waiting time for the appointments was very quick, i cant remember exactly, it may be in an earlier post of mine, but it was in a few weeks im sure, where as when ive rang before there had been quite a wait!! also he was in & out of the embassy very quickly, only about an hour, which compared to 4 hours in 2004 is very good! then i think in 2008 when we went it was a few hours, so it does seem to make your time in there quicker.

also now when you go, they have changed this part along with the DS160, if like you & my husband & need to be recommended for a waiver, your given a number & you keep checking online for your case status update etc, i like the idea of this, so we will have this next time. so they dont email to send passport now, its all on their website....

like you say i love going aswell i guess after a while we get used to this, i dont like emailing the documents though, im not very good with the scanning etc, so i get him to do that, lol.

Hmmm
no email asking me to post my passport back? i can check online? that's no diff is it really, yeah i can check online but it wont make their decision come any quicker so i don't see the point other than me compulsively checking online as to the status as opposed to checking e mail daily before when it was the old way waiting for them to request passpotrt lol.

The more i read into this the more it seams pointless, i have never waited more than 4 weeks for an appointment anyway and i have always done it months in advance, this way it's taking longer cos now i cant even make appt till this acpo is back .

The whole thing just seams mad, why send everything to them to then still have to see the VCO to be told you need a waiver and then leave without a visa and still have to go through the old proc of sending passport bac so on and so on it isn't making the proc any quicker or easier is it? infact in my case as i said by now i'd have appt date and then get acpo whilst waiting.

Jords

Yeah see what you mean, i think with the checking online thing, as apparntley it has different updates etc, perhaps some people may feel they can actually check something rather than just wait.. i see what you mean though, we allways seem to apply in advance & wait ages, i still dont think they like to inform you untill nearer your intended date of travel. like you say you dont have the outcome any quicker etc & at least with the email it comes to you!!

i have no idea as to why they think of anything, lol, i dont think we will ever really know unless perhaps they mean the process will be quicker once your at the embassy? i think my husband did say it was different inside to last time i think, or perhaps ive been dreaming!! lol. but he was certainley in & out alot quicker than i expected. i guess you will find out soon when you go, look forward to hearing about it.

just make sure when you email your documents over you get the confirmation email from them, or you`ll be like us & wait & realise they never even got them lol.

We went to Chicago last week and despite having the ESTA we still had to fill in a green form each as the immigration want to clip the tear off bit into your passport!

On another note we were told by a fellow traveller that the USA now only requires 90 days to be left on your passport when you leave the USA rather than 6 months. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks

We had an ESTA approved in Sept 09. Do we have to update it with details of each trip even though it latsts for 2 years?

No you don't have to update it. They don't look at it anyway!