For those of us not in the USA, but in US Visa waiver countries, a US ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) is required to be completed before you travel.
The process itself isn’t difficult to complete, but does require renewal every two years. Thankfully, if you registered an email address when you registered previously, you’ll get a warning email that your ESTA will expire… but in the most simplistic form:
Redacted Expiration Warning.
The text goes like this:
ATTENTION! The travel authorization submitted on <redacted date> via ESTA will expire within the next 30 days. It is not possible to extend or renew a current ESTA travel authorization. You will need to apply for a new ESTA travel authorization. Please reapply at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov if travel to the United States is intended in the near future. If there are 30 or more days left on the old authorization you will receive a warning message during the application and be asked if you wish to proceed.
E-mail Security: If you are concerned about clicking the above link, ESTA can be accessed by typing https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov in the address bar of your browser.
Whilst the email itself is very simple (and in some respects does look like a phishing email), the advice at the bottom of the email to type the web address is reasonable, to take you to the US Department of Homeland Security ESTA web site for complete the application.
And pay the $14 fee ($10 for the fee, $4 for processing) for your ESTA to be approved.
This is available for 38 countries in the US Visa waiver programme – a list is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_System_for_Travel_Authorization.
Frequent travellers note that this needs to renewed or applied for 72 hours before departure – and ideally a lot further before. You can also check the state of applications that are pending, or the validity of your current wavier at the site.
However, even years after the introduction of ESTA, there are still “scams” and “assistance services” to complete your form and charge you more for the privilege of completing the process (which you can do yourself, and takes a total of 10 minutes). So do yourself a favour (protecting 1) your wallet and 2) your identity) by heading to the official site at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/
Still, it’s another $14 for a Visa that’s not a Visa. At least the price hasn’t shot up since 2010…
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