Your trip to the USA is approaching and you still haven’t applied for your travel authorization? If you are a French national holding a valid biometric or electronic passport and wish to travel to the USA for a temporary stay, we advise you to apply for an ESTA, rather than a visa.
When is the best time to apply for ESTA? How long does it take for the American authorities to respond? How long is the authorization valid for? All the answers here.
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ESTA: when should you apply?
It’s advisable to apply for ESTA authorization as soon as you plan to travel to the USA, and well before you order your plane tickets. If a person is eligible, ESTA authorization is given without a hitch. However, it is important to allow for a margin of time in the event of a refusal.
To apply for an ESTA, you need to fill in an online form on the U.S. government’s official website. If you’d like help filling in the form, you can use the services of a private site that will take care of the process on your behalf. The ESTA form covers your identification (including information from your valid passport), your stay and your current situation.
When the ESTA form has been completed without any input errors, all the conditions for obtaining the document have been met and the document has been paid for, the response time of the American electronic systems is a maximum of 72 hours.
There are three possible responses from the US authorities: 1) authorization approved, 2) request pending and 3) travel not authorized.
In the case of an approved authorization, first of all: congratulations! This means that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has approved your ESTA application, and that you can travel to the U.S. by air or sea, for tourism or business for up to 90 days. Once there, the customs officer will check your identity documents (electronic or biometric passport and ESTA) and your exit ticket (round-trip or onward ticket) before deciding whether or not you are authorized to enter the USA.
Pending application simply means that your application is under review and that a definitive answer will be given within 3 days.
Unauthorized travel is a little more complex, and you’ll need to allow more time. In fact, you’ll have to wait 10 days before you can reapply and receive your ESTA, if the refusal is due to a typing error on the ESTA form at the time of application. If you are not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program, you will need to apply for a visa from the consular services of the American embassy. This is a longer and more costly process. You’ll need to determine which U.S. visa best suits your stay in the U.S. before applying online. Your application will then be presented to a consular officer at the U.S. embassy, who will decide whether or not to issue you the USA visa you require.
When should I reapply for ESTA?
The ESTA is valid for a maximum of 2 years. If you obtain an ESTA for this length of time, you must renew it after these 2 years if you intend to travel to the USA again. Note that the validity date may be shorter if the expiry date of your passport requires it. The ESTA then matches the validity of the passport used (less than two years).
If your authorization expires while you are in the U.S., this will not affect your stay in the country. The ESTA must be valid on arrival in the USA, not on departure.
As the ESTA is linked to the passport number, any change of passport invalidates the authorization. In the case of an expired, stolen or lost passport, a new ESTA application must be made using the information in the new passport.
You are also required to reapply for an ESTA if your situation changes, particularly if one of the answers to the ESTA form’s closed questions changes (medical condition, legal problem, etc.).
Please note that the procedure for a new application is similar to that for the first application (ESTA form on the official website or via a private website). All applications are processed independently, which means that obtaining ESTA is not guaranteed.