ESTA Visa Waiver Program

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Apply for ESTA

Travelers must meet the following requirements to enter the U.S. under the VWP USA:

  • You must be a citizen of any of the above countries and possess a VWP-compliant passport.
  • The ESTA authorization is required.
  • You can stay in the U.S. for no more than 90 days.

Travel Purposes should be:

  • Business - Your purpose for your planned business travel is to consult business associates, travel on specific dates for a scientific or educational conference or professional convention or conference, settle an estate, or negotiate a contract.
  • Pleasure/Tourism: The purpose of your planned traveling is to have fun. This includes vacation (holiday), tourism, amusement, visits, rest, medical treatment, and activities of a fraternal or social nature. Amateurs won't receive any remuneration for participating in musicals, sporting events, or similar contests.
  • Transit - If you're transiting via a city in the United States.

If you are entering the U.S. via air or sea, your passport must include:

  • A return or onward ticket must be carried. A copy of the itinerary must also be brought if you travel with travel authorization access. Legal residents of these countries must travel with onward tickets that terminate in Mexico, Canada, or Bermuda.
  • You can enter the United States on an air or sea carrier participating in the VWP. This includes any aircraft of a U.S. company that has signed an agreement with Homeland Security to transport passengers under the Visa Waiver Program.

VWP countries list

Applicants from Canadian, Mexican, and Bermuda

Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda do not participate in the Visa Waiver Program. Other provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act allow for visa-free travel by nationals of Canada and Bermuda, but only under certain conditions. Citizens of Canada, Mexico and Bermuda are not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program. Therefore, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda are not ESTA visa countries. It is important to note that certain nationals from Canada and Bermuda who travel to the United States may require nonimmigrant visas.

Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015

The Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act 2015 requires that travelers from the following categories obtain a visa before traveling to the United States. They are no longer eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).

  • VWP nationals who have visited or been present in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen since March 1, 2011 (with some exceptions for travel for diplomatic and military purposes in service of a VWP nation).
  • The VWP nationals, who are also citizens of Iran, Iraq, or Sudan, can apply.

They can apply for visas through regular appointments at the U.S. Consulate or Embassy. U.S. Consulates and Embassies are available to assist those who need access to travel urgently to the United States.

Individuals exempted from the Act due to their diplomatic, military, or other presence in any of the seven countries may have their ESTA denied. They can visit the CBP website or contact the CBP Information Center. A nonimmigrant visa may be applied for at any U.S. Embassy and Consulate.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection strongly suggests that all travelers to the United States verify their ESTA status before making travel arrangements or traveling to the United States. You can find more information throughout the pages on our website.

ESTA Passport Requirements

Regardless of their passport age or type, all VWP travelers must possess a machine-readable passport. Other passport requirements may apply depending on the date that VWP travelers’ passports were issued, such as:
  • Machine-readable passports issued, renewed, or extended after October 26, 2006, require an integrated chip containing information from the data page (ePassport).
  • Digital photographs are required on machine-readable passports issued between October 26, 2005, and October 25, 2006.
  • There are no additional requirements for machine-readable passports that were issued, renewed/extended before October 26, 2005.

Passport Validity: All visitors to the U.S. must have valid passports for at least six months beyond their intended stay. Citizens from the six-month Club Update countries are exempted from the six-month rule. They only need to have valid passports for the duration of their stay. Your passport must be valid for at most 90 days if you travel visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program and admitted into the U.S.

If your passport is not compliant with VWP requirements and you are a VWP traveler, it may be worth asking the passport issuing authority of your country to issue a new VWP-compliant passport. You cannot travel under VWP if your passport is not valid. If you don’t have a VWP-compliant passport to enter the U.S., you will need a visa.