Help and common questions

Permission to board a flight or ship to the United States without a visa. It is not a visa and not a guarantee of entry: a border officer still decides whether to admit you on arrival.

Citizens of the 42 Visa Waiver Program countries travelling by air or sea for tourism, business or transit, staying up to 90 days. Everyone needs their own, including babies.

No. An ESTA is quicker and cheaper with no interview, but limits you to 90 days per visit and to tourism, business or transit. A B1/B2 visa takes longer and costs more but allows more.

No. ESTA applies only to air and sea arrivals. At a land border you complete an I-94W instead and pay a separate fee there.

Yes. Even a one-hour connection without leaving the airport counts as entering the US. Choose "in transit" when the form asks for your address in the United States.

$40.27, paid to CBP. There is no cheaper official route and no discount for children.

Only the $4.00 processing portion. The authorization fee is charged on approval, so a refusal costs a few dollars rather than the full amount.

They fill in the same free government form for you and add a service fee on top of the $40.27 that still has to reach CBP. Legal when clearly disclosed. Check that any site says plainly it is not the government, shows its own fee separately, and links you to the official site.

No. Once the authorization fee is charged it is not returned — not if you cancel your trip, not if your passport is replaced, and not if you later apply for a visa instead.

$90.00, separate from and additional to the $40.27 you pay CBP yourself. We never collect the government fee.

CBP advises at least 72 hours before departure. Most approvals come back in minutes, but some go to manual review, and an airline will not board you without one.

Your passport, a US address if you have one, your employer details, and your travel plans if settled. You can apply without fixed plans.

Yes. Since 1 April 2016 the programme requires an e-passport — one with a chip and the small rectangular camera symbol on the cover.

Yes, CBP has a group application, but each traveller still needs their own authorization and each is charged $40.27. There is no family rate.

Nine questions covering communicable diseases, arrests and convictions, drug offences, past visa refusals and overstays, and travel to certain countries. Answer them honestly — a false answer is far more serious than a yes.

No. If you have a valid visa in the appropriate category, you travel on that. Do not apply for both.

You must travel on the same passport you applied with. The authorization is tied to that document, and presenting a different one means the airline cannot find your ESTA.

Yes. What matters is your citizenship and your method of arrival, not where the flight departs from.

No. It is linked electronically to your passport and airlines check it automatically. Keeping a note of your application number is still sensible.

Yes. The official site lets you retrieve and print your application using your application number, passport number and date of birth.

Usually minutes; some go to manual review and take up to 72 hours. If yours is pending close to departure, contact the CBP help desk rather than reapplying — a second application costs another $40.27 and will not speed it up.

Two years, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that period you can enter as often as you like, 90 days at a time.

Not reliably. Short trips to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean generally do not restart the clock. Trying to reset it this way is a common reason for being refused entry.

No. An ESTA is tied to the passport it was issued against. A new passport means a new application and a new $40.27.

On the official CBP site, using your application number, passport number and date of birth. There is a retrieval option if you have lost the number.

Nothing changes for that visit. Once admitted, expiry does not shorten the stay the officer granted you. You would need a valid one again only to re-enter after leaving.

The airline will not let you board — carriers check before check-in and are fined for carrying passengers without one. There is no counter at the airport where this can be fixed.

CBP holds ESTA data under its own published privacy rules and shares it within government for security and law-enforcement purposes. That is separate from anything we hold.

Only some fields can be edited after submission. Name, date of birth, passport number and country of citizenship generally cannot, which means a new application and another $40.27.

A refusal is not an accusation. The usual next step is a B1/B2 visa at a US embassy or consulate, where an officer can consider your circumstances. Reapplying with the same details will produce the same result.

Not automatically — it depends on the offence and the outcome. This is genuinely a question for a qualified immigration attorney, not for us or any form-filling service.

If you were not clearly told it was a private service, you may be able to dispute the charge with your bank. Consumer authorities in the UK and EU take undisclosed third-party fees seriously.

No. We are a private company with no connection to CBP, the Department of Homeland Security, or any agency. You can apply yourself at esta.cbp.dhs.gov for $40.27.

No. You submit it yourself and pay CBP directly. We have no access to the ESTA system.

No, and any site claiming otherwise is misleading you. CBP alone decides. What we can do is make sure a preventable error is not the reason you are refused.

CBP is right that no third party can get you an ESTA faster, cheaper or more certainly than applying yourself — and we say so on every page. What we sell is a second pair of eyes before you submit, because several fields cannot be corrected afterwards. If that is not worth it to you, apply yourself and keep the money.

If we miss an error in the details you gave us, your $90.00 is refunded in full. You also have the statutory right to withdraw within 14 days, which you waive only if you ask us to begin immediately and we have completed the work.

It goes to our form provider, is used only for the review, and is deleted on a fixed schedule afterwards. We never send documents by email, and we never ask for card details outside the payment page.