Deeks

Sorry if this has been asked before, but this is Mr Deeks and I'm flying to the Sates on 10th June on my spouse immigrant visa.

My question is, do I need to complete the ESTA form and visa waiver document, or am I covered by my visa?

Thank-you

md95065

Since you have a visa and are not traveling under the VWP you do not need to complete ESTA.

(An unfortunate side effect of this is that you may find it impossible to check in for you flight online because most airline web sites can't cope with this situation so you will very likely have to stand in line to check in at the airport)

Deeks

OK, thank-you, I'll take a book so's not to get bored queuing

redarmy990

good luck mr deeks and have a good trip

GeoffM

I wonder whether one could fill out an ESTA anyway, just to be able to do online check-in? Some people might be prepared to pay $14 for the sake of maybe getting a better seat and/or avoiding queues. Or would that be considered fraudalent by USCIS/DoS?

A I

No idea how that works...

even assuming it's free to you because you have a valid esta from a prior entry, I don't know if your entry info is supposed to match what you gave the airline.

I'd suppose you could tell the airline you were coming on VWP, get borded, and then use your immigrant visa to get in....

What are the consequences...?? No clue

sir_eccles

One would assume (though this could be wishful thinking) that the magic ESTA machine knows you have a visa already. Though who knows what a denied ESTA might do to you. Feel free to try it with your details, I'm certainly not going to try with mine.

A better approach might be to lobby the airlines to fix their websites.

GeoffM

Don't worry, certainly won't be trying it. I was simply musing. Having a closer look, one of the first questions the site asks is if you're travelling for less than 90 days; later on it asks if you are seeking work. However, the usage of such was for the airline, not for immigration, but I suspect the two are rather closely linked in that if you boarded using ESTA (passenger list sent to US, presumably with visa/ESTA information) but upon arrival attempted to do immigration with a visa, the immigration officers might have something to say!

crg

I wondered the same thing, but then wondered how the person could answer the ESTA question about seeking to work in the US.

Paul B

You always have to stand in line anyway, checked in on-line or not, visa or not.

Up until last year I flew from UK to the USA every 10 weeks, on a work visa, and even though I checked in on-line and printed my boarding pass out, I still had to go to the check in desks. Security would turn me back if I didn't get the security clearance sticker and answer all the 'did you pack this bag' or 'has your camera been repaired recently' questions.

There used to be a 'shortcut' through the business class lane marked 'on-line check in' but eventually there were so many people doing it it was as quick to just join the normal grockles queue.

Unless things have changed in the last year then that has been the norm for the last five years.

I now fly in from the Philippines, via Japan, and I get asked none of these awkward questions.