Hi,
quick question. We're off to the US next week but can't remember what visa we need to enter the US. I know an ESTA is for arrival by air or sea but what if you're driving to the states?
Thanks very much (please don't shoot me if I could have found it here somewhere... )

$US 6 cash.

And yes, you could have found here somewhere. BANG!!

Sorry, it was a moment of panic!! Thank you for your help

I am sure I read somewhere that you only need the ESTA for air travel from here to the US. Google will be your friend

They usually invite you to the office fill in a I94 visa waiver green card, take your fingerprints and photograph, relieve everyone going of $6 and ask you a few questions about where you are going.....most times that I have been in the last year they have wanted the actual address of the hotels I was stopping at. 20-45 mins for a car of 4 of us usually at Houlton, ME..........never seen a queue there yet......

Well hotels book so we're good to go.... But what if you just wanted to wander and stop when you got tired?

They will let you do that no problem (they then let you go just after they place the tracking device on your vehicle)

Haha, funny!

Big brother really is alive and well! Lol

Just remember to try not to annoy the American DHS officer - participation in the Visa Waiver program is entirely at their discretion, it can be withdrawn at ANY time for ANY reason, they do NOT have to explain why and there is NO right of appeal.

Should this happen to you (as it happened to me on the southern US border) you will find yourself being mightily inconvenienced in having to go to the US Consular office (Purdy's Wharf, I believe) after a long-winded explanation as to why a Brit is applying for a B1/B2 visa.

Yes they can withdraw it but they usually just do that if you pi** them off . Friends of ours didn't hand their I94 back and went to the border with an expired one and were told next time they'd be stripped off their visa waiver rights and have to apply for the B1/B2.

We crossed into the USA on Friday morning and there is some new rules coming into force.....so ESTA is now being recognized at land crossings.

What does that mean? Well, if you have a valid ESTA you will get a white visa exempt document stapled into your passport not green. You should not have to fill in the green visa exempt paperwork as you have already answered the questions (but they might get you to do it anyway). The white visa exempt document is still valid for 90 days. It still costs $6 each.