General Chat

US to charge £9 for Esta compulsory travel entry form

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10899968

The US government is to start charging UK travellers $14 (£9) to apply for permission to enter the country.

The compulsory Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) is free at present, but from 9 September visitors to the US will have to pay for it.

It lasts for two years; people who already have a valid form will not have to pay until their current one expires.....................
Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com, has urged people even considering a trip to the US to apply for a form now to beat the charge.

He said: "The security authorisation lasts for two years, so do it now and it'll be free if you travel in that time. Yet leave it for a month and you'll have to pay for it.

I found this out yesterday whilst looking on the DIBB site (Disney Information Bulletin Boards) :o((

We are going to go next Aug, and our ESTA will expire by then by about 2 weeks :o((

Trouble is, although we have the money (matured insurance policy which will pay for the whole holiday) We dont want to book it just yet, as we need to find out info regarding college registration times etc as son will be leaving school next year & moving on to college.

Our windfall was unexpected, and as far as the kids are aware we may go abroad somewhere small IF we can scrape the money together..oh hehehe !

Besides that, the kids wont know they are actually going back to the house of mouse till Xmas when we drop the bombshell were going for 3 weeks & they wont actually have to wait until they are grown up & working to afford their own fare.....hehehe !

Back to ESTA, and I'm not surprised that someone decided it would be a good money making venture for their government. I mean, you cant enter the country without it so you have to do it - no choice :o((

~~~~~Mildred~~~~~~, Good to see you. I've been wondering where you've been hiding :)

You can apply again now I think. We've been applying each time we've gone to the US not realising we were covered for 2 years. It may be worth looking on Martin Lewis' site Moneysavingexpert.com. (I haven't looked but there's bound to be something about it)

-I've just got back from a week at Costa de Butlins Skeggy :o))

Trouble is, I dont know the dates we are travelling yet, nor the name of where we are staying :o((

I know you can amend it at a later date but I really dont want to ar*e it all up as I dont know how much you can actually amend & they are pretty strict about it all being right :o(

ahhh, I forgot about that. It's a pity. Good to see you back. Hope you had a lovely time :)

Unless they've changed the forms, it's going to be a bit difficult for Mildred to get the ESTAs in now: you need to put in the passport numbers. At least you could do it for OH and yourself.

I can't really see how you can use the old one. You've had to say where you will be staying for the first night, and presumably that will be different each time you travel.

Here is a link to his site where he talks about ESTA, it may be worth looking at the details:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/travel/2010/08/esta-applications-to-cost-from-september

There is also threads on the DIBB (Google DIBB) & an official link to the ESTA site

Having been to US on holiday each year for the past 3 years we were very surprised to be asked to still complete the green waiver forms on the flights despite completing the ESTA. When we commented we were told 'Oh just complete it the tour operator needs it.'

Di