ESTA is an electronic travel document. It is only valid for travel to the United States. While a visa is a universal travel document, ESTA authorization is reserved for nationals of countries benefiting from the Visa Waiver Program. These nationals must have a biometric or electronic passport, and travel for a maximum of 90 days within the U.S. territory, for tourism, business or stopover purposes. Like the visa, the ESTA is not free. The online fee is $21. Payment is made directly after filling in the ESTA form. You can use an ordinary credit card (Mastercard, Visa or American Express).
ESTA USA, when to pay?
To pay for ESTA authorization, you must first apply for ESTA authorization. The ESTA application is an online form. In other words, you need to fill in the form and answer all the questions correctly, in order to be able to enjoy your stay in the USA.
To do this, you need to provide information on your identity, contact details, passport references (passport number), links to drugs or terrorism, physical and mental health, reasons for traveling to the U.S. and previous requests for U.S. travel authorization. Once the ESTA form has been completed, payment of the fee is required to validate your application.
The online ESTA form is available on the U.S. government website. The cost of validating an ESTA application is $21. The official ESTA is valid for two years, unless you lose your passport or it expires. In this case, you’ll need to reapply online with your new, valid passport.
ESTA application responses
An automatic reply will be sent to you as soon as your application has been validated by the US authorities. This response may mean that travel authorization has been granted for your trip to the USA. In this case, you will be able to travel to the USA several times during a 2-year period with the same authorization. During this period, as an ESTA holder, you will be allowed to enter the USA several times, as long as your stay in the USA does not exceed 90 days and your passport remains valid.
If your ESTA document is refused, you will only be able to reapply after a 10-day waiting period if you consider that the refusal was due to an error on your part. Otherwise, you’ll have to apply for a USA visa at the American embassy. Be aware that applying for a U.S. visa requires you to travel to the U.S. embassy, where you will be interviewed by a U.S. embassy official, and that the cost of this process will be higher than that of an ESTA.
