jempee

Hi. Looking for an answer as to if i need to fill in a ESTA form prior to flying to USA?
Am a UK citizen living in Canada as a permenant resident. Have a trip booked so need to know a.s.a.p!!!!

thanks

newshoney

Yep... and it will speed things up for the future too.

jempee

Thanks so what would happen if we did not fill one in??? would we have been refused entry?

Ben W Bell

Technically yes. If you have a passport from a Visa Waiver country you're technically not allowed to fly towards the US without a valid ESTA.

rae

i completely forgot about this for a trip to san diego i have just got back from, PR with UK passport, only remembered when i saw the green cards at the desk, guy there was not interested in ESTA, did not even mention it or ask me about it, just gave me the green cards just as always and that was that. so it appears with any new process there will be a period of adjustment, and maybe the green cards will be with us for sometime yet.

Ramsey

Think it depends on if you have a previous travel record in their system.....

If you are on a brand-new passport or have never traveled to the US before, then I think it would be more obvious.

coal

I have just made a trip from Vancouver to San Francisco and they asked me if I had ESTA. I didn't know anything about it so they gave me the web address and told me to apply for future trips. I just filled in the green visa waiver form and that was OK this time. The officer said there is a period of transtion with the new system so they are making allowances. There was nothing on the airline website to let me know about this so I'm not sure how I would have known anyway! By the way I have UK passport with PR.

rae

nope, pointed to the green cards and told me i would need to fill one in pretty much straight away before passports or id was handed over. obviously different depending on where you are/who you get.

fledermaus

You dont need one for land crossings though do you?

rae

just air travel at the moment as far as i am aware.

fledermaus

That's what I thought too. Good. We are off to USA in two weeks time, so will find out then if we are wrong!

val50

we flew from Halifax to New York in February. Applied and had our ESTA form which we handed over at the airport. We were told we still had to fill in the green card, they didn't want to see the ESTA document. Same thing happened on the flight back.

Ramsey

The "Green Card" is the I-94 Visa-waiver form and will still always be required.

The ESTA is a pre-notice to the US that allows you to travel to the US (BY AIR) and apply for a Visa-waiver.

Without the ESTA you are technically not allowed to apply for the Visa-waiver (at an airport).

However, the ESTA is being used to ensure that there is already a record of your passport in the Customs Database before they process the Visa-waiver.

If you have already traveled to the US with your current passport, there will already be a record of you (and your photo & fingerprint) in the database. Therefore, not filling in an ESTA would not likely cause a problem.

If there is no record of you in the database, then it could cause you a problem.

However, the ESTA is free.... so why not fill it out??


And yes, this is only for Air travel at the moment.

rae

i have no issue with ESTA or filling it out, i just forgot. i was under the impression that ESTA was replacing the green cards, as someone above mentions, and as was mentioned to me when i flew to new york just after its introduction by immigration at La Guardia, who explained it to me as, green cards stay just until ESTA finds its feet then they will go. so now i am confused.
as i say i was given the green card before they even knew who i was, yet ESTA still did not come up, and, when they saw my passport, saw i have travelled to the US a few months ago since ESTA, still took prints and eye scan again.
i don't doubt you are correct, it just seems to be at the moment play it by ear depending on which airport and or official you deal with.

Ramsey

The ESTA is a way of filtering out people who are not eligible to apply for the Visa-waiver and also creates a record of you in the database... that's it.

There is no requirement to show any proof of the ESTA at the immigration desk (it says this when you fill out the form) just take a note of the reference number.

The immigration procedure has not changed (The green I-94 form).

You will always be fingerprint scanned and photo taken, even if they have done it before.