The ESTA can be easily applied for using the online ESTA form. Travellers holding this electronic travel authorisation and who meet all of its requirements, do not need a visa to travel to the United States.

The ESTA (meaning) is a digital travel authorisation issued by the US government. This travel permission is granted when a traveller meets all requirements for it. Travellers need to be able to declare they do not pose a threat to American public health, safety or the rule of law in the United States of America. This way, the ESTA system prevents undesired individuals from entering the United States.

The ESTA form

Open the ESTA form

Manual for filling out the ESTA form

The ESTA form can be filled out electronically and is split into four sections:

Applicant contact details

In the first part of the application form the applicant’s contact details need to be filled out. When submitting a group application for multiple travellers at once, only the contact details of one of these travellers for which the ESTA is applied for need to be filled out. Please ensure that you enter your email address with care here; as all documentation regarding the ESTA application is sent to this email address.

Information on US travel

The second part of the ESTA form is about your travel details for upcoming travel to the USA. Please fill in your expected arrival date in the US here. In case of a group application, the arrival date must be the same for all travellers covered by the same ESTA application. If this is not the case, separate application forms need to be filled out for each individual traveller. The second part of the form is also the part of the form where you can choose for an urgent ESTA application. This is done by checking the application form box for ‘Urgent deliveryʼ. The additional charge for urgent delivery is £17.50 per ESTA.

In the second part of the ESTA form details for a point of contact/contact person in the United States are also asked for, as well as lodging details following initial arrival and an emergency contact (in or outside the United States). Indicating a point of contact/contact person in the United States is optional; you may also fill in ‘Unknown’ (ultimately showing as UNKNOWN) here. Even filling in address details for lodging after first arrival in the United States is optional. However, entering emergency contact details is mandatory. Here you can fill in the contact details of a family member, friend or coworker, who is not accompanying you on your travel.

Traveller information for one or more travellers

In the third section of the ESTA form for each traveller a number of details need to be entered. When applying for the ESTA’s of multiple travellers at once, this section needs to be filled out for each individual traveller. Every traveller, including children and infants, must have their own passports and ESTA’s for travel to the US.

Passport information
It is essential that all the passport information is correctly entered in the application form. A small typing error can result in an ESTA that is invalid and without a valid ESTA checking in for a flight or cruise to the United States is not possible. If a mistake is made entering the passport information in the ESTA form, an entirely new travel authorisation needs to be applied for. This means filling out the form a different time and having to pay the application costs again. Apart from the passport information used for travel, in this form section a number of details of any different travel document (passport or identity card) for those travellers holding a different (additional) nationality.

Employer information
For each traveller employer information is also asked for. This information also needs to be filled in, in case the traveller is self-employed, or only has a side job or summer job.

Background questions

The fourth and final section of the ESTA form comprises several questions in relation to the traveller’s background. In this section, questions are asked on any drug use, severe psychiatric problems and/or criminal history of the traveller concerned. It is also asked here whether the traveller has been to Libia, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia or Yemen on or after March 1st of 2011, or in Cuba on or after January 12th of 2021. If one or more of these security background questions need to be answered with ‘Yes’, it is not possible to apply for an ESTA through this website. After answering these background questions, you will be presented with the “Statement of Agreement”. To be able to submit your application, you need to indicate that you agree with this statement. By agreeing to this, travellers declare not to appeal the U.S. Customs & Border Protection’s decision regarding the admissibility of the traveller to the United States of America. The applicant also declares to have filled out all questions in the ESTA application completely and truthfully.

Adding additional travellers
After filling out the ESTA form for one traveller, it is easy to add an extra traveller to the application. This can be done by clicking the button at the bottom of the form that reads ‘Add a traveller’. This way, contact details and travel information do not need to be entered in the form again.

Checking the application and making your payment

After answering all the ESTA form questions, please click ‘Apply for ESTA’. This will lead you to the overview page to check your application. On this page, you can see to it that the information is entered completely and correctly. It is vital that you check this carefully. This way you prevent a refusal of your application, or an already approved ESTA USA being declared void. If you detect a mistake, please click ‘Edit’ to correct your information and go on to click ‘Save’. If all the entered information is correct, you can proceed to make your payment. To do so, please select your method of payment, which will lead you to the payment screen.

Submitting the required documents

The last step to complete an ESTA application is submitting a digital copy of the passport of each traveller. This is done on the uploads page, which appears after making your payment. For this, you will need either a digital photo or scan of the passport information page. The image needs to be sharp, displaying all information in a clearly legible fashion. Moreover, no part of the information page may be covered by, for instance, an object or a part of your hand. On this uploads page you will find further instructions to crop (resize) the digital image you choose for this correctly.

After submitting this document for all travellers it is checked an processed by a visa expert of e-Visa.co.uk. If a passport copy does not meet the mandatory requirements, they will contact you as soon as possible. This way, it is still possible for you to submit a new digital copy meeting the requirements for swift processing of your application. As soon as your documentation checks out, the application is taken in for further processing.

Editing the ESTA form

Did you fill out your ESTA application form incorrectly? You can only edit the information on your ESTA form if your application is not yet being processed. However, it is not always necessary to make changes. For example, if you made a mistake while entering your arrival date in the United States, you are not required to report it. If you made a mistake while filling in your passport information, however, you must always make a correction. Is your application already being processed, or has your ESTA already been granted? Then the only way to correct an error is to apply for a new ESTA. Your ESTA application will be processed immediately after payment.

You can find more information on when changes need to be made on our ESTA FAQ page, under the question ‘Do I need to pass on changes or corrections, and how do I do that?‘ in the ‘After submitting the application‘ section.

Applying for an ESTA

Either an ESTA application per individual traveller or a group application for multiple travellers can be submitted. To start your ESTA application right away, please open the ESTA form. This can be done by clicking the following button: