Ameorko

I'm a British citizen here in Canada on my husbands Work permit, I'm traveling to the US via land and then flying from Syracuse, New York to Tampa Florida in the very near future I will be returning from Tampa to Syracuse and traveling to Canada by land.

Do I need an ESTA for any part of this journey?

Thanks!

Former Lancastrian

No

I am a Landed Immigrant of Canada?

If you are a citizen of a VWP country, and you are traveling by land to the United States, you do not have to apply for ESTA. If you are coming to the U.S. by air or sea, you DO have to apply for ESTA. If you are not a citizen of a VWP country, you are required to have a visa, and therefore ESTA does not apply to you.

I am a citizen of a VWP country and am visiting the U.S. from Canada or Mexico?

If you are coming by land, you do not need to have ESTA authorization, however, you should return your green I-94W card upon departure. If you are arriving by air or sea, you do need to apply for ESTA. You should return your green I-94W to the airline representative prior to boarding your flight.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...S2w%3D/p/0/c/0

Ameorko

Thank you!

conjonway

Link doesn't work mate.

Do you count as a 'landed immigrant' in Canada if you are there on your spouses's work permit? Also, I'm not sure what VWP means?

I would have tried your link to figure it out, but I couldn't get it to work

Former Lancastrian

Try this one
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...S2w%3D/p/0/c/0

In your case you are not a landed immigrants but a temporary resident. Landed immigrant is one who has Permanent Resident status and has done a formal landing.
VWP = Visa Waiver Programme. The UK is a member of that therefore if entering the US by air or sea you require an ESTA. If by land then just the I94 waiver.
ESTA is $14 for 2 years I94 waiver is $6 for 90 days.

Zoe Bell

just to add to this in case people get confused green I94W forms are no longer issued as per

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id...94_rollout.xml

Oakvillian

that's true for air and sea travel. British citizens entering the USA by land, who do not already have an ESTA, will still need to complete a green I-94W form. If you have a valid ESTA, the CBP agent will pull the information from that when your passport is scanned so you don't have to fill the form in.

Last time we crossed by land, OH and I had an in-date ESTA, child #1 did not: we had to fill out a green form for him as in days of old, but our relevant info was printed on a white card to staple in our passports. Child #2 and #3 travelled on their Canadian passports so didn't need anything.

Ameorko

Thanks for the update. I will obtain a green card from customs when crossing.

Steve_

What actually is the situation with the VWP and I-94W at land borders, we were having this discussion in the US section yesterday.

I know you don't get an I-94W at airports anymore but someone posted on here they didn't get one at a land border recently either so I wasn't sure if the information on the CBP website was up-to-date.

I've seen them print off the I-94, they just ask for the address you're staying at, so do you physically still fill in the form, or do they just give you one that is printed off? Or are they just doing it as at airports now and you go to the electronic I-94 website if you want a paper one?

Anyone entered recently, like in the last couple of weeks by land on the VWP?

Steve_

When was this? So you filled in a card, the guy brought up the ESTA information and put in your address and then printed it off and stapled it in your passport? What did he do with the form, throw it away? So this would agree with what someone else said, but they didn't even fill in the card because they had ESTA so he just asked for their address.

Oakvillian

Not quite - there was no form filling for the ESTA-equipped adults.

For myself and OH, I imagine that as the agent scanned our passports the ESTA information connected with that passport number came up on the screen. He asked us where we were staying - I suppose that information went somewhere. Fingerprints and photo taken as usual. He then printed out a little white card, the size of the tear-off "stub" portion of the green I94W document, and that was stapled into our passports. For my son, who has never previously entered the US by air and doesn't have a valid ESTA, the process was exactly the same as it's always been: fill in the green I94W form, complete with where-are-you-staying blurb, CBP agent tears off stub, staples into passport, presumably files the other piece of I94W somewhere sensible.

As far as I can tell, the ONLY thing an ESTA does for a visa waiver citizen at a land border is saves your form-filling hand from the task of filling in the green form. You still go to secondary, you still speak to an agent, you still have fingerprints scanned, you still get a card stapled in your passport. And still pay $6 each for the privilege.

This was a couple of months ago.

Steve_

Right okay so it's basically the same as for a visa then, they swipe the visa, ask the address and print off the I-94. Only manual form filling for people without ESTA.