America,  Around the world,  During the World Tour,  TDM,  Tips,  USA

[ESTA] Maximum duration, Boundary countries, Traps… What no one will tell you about ESTA

If you don’t go to the United States very often, you don’t risk falling into the ESTA “traps”, but if you go there a little too often, or if you’re around the world and travel a little too much in North America, here are the traps you risk falling into, and the consequences can be serious, both financial and administrative (from the loss of airline tickets to prohibition of ESTA application, prison, deportation to France…)

Most French people apply for an ESTA to travel to the United States because the process is simpler and cheaper than applying for a visa at the U.S. Embassy.

There are a lot of unofficial sites dedicated to ESTA

Applying for an ESTA costs only 14$ on the official website: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/. This website is also translated into French. The form is to be filled out in English, but the instructions are available in French.

But there are plenty of other unofficial sites that abound on the Internet. They will sometimes charge you 10 times more than the official site. And going through them does NOT guarantee you’ll get an ESTA faster, or have a better chance of getting the ESTA. You have, in addition, the risk to fall on a false site, and to have a false ESTA.

So only trust the official website. If you have doubts and don’t know which site is really official, go to the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is a link to the official site.

Having your ESTA does not mean that you will be allowed to enter the United States

ESTA is an automated system used to determine the eligibility of visitors to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). And French nationals are concerned by this program.

Approval only allows a traveler to board an airplane or boat to travel to the United States without a visa. In all cases, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers make admissibility determinations at ports of entry or pre-clearance facilities.

Here are a few tips to help you prepare for immigration issues, whether you are a tourist, a world tourist or a digital nomad

You will be asked for your exit ticket at the airport. And you can not show any

To prove to everyone that you do not intend to stay forever in the United States, at the airport in France, you will be asked to show your ticket to leave the country. However, the definition of “exit” has a rather particular meaning for the US:

The trip must not end in contiguous territory or adjacent islands unless the traveller is a resident of those places (source)

Thus, an exit ticket to Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the Bahamas… will not be accepted as an exit ticket. An exit ticket outside the WVP zone, i.e. away from countries bordering the United States and the following adjacent islands, is required:

adjacent islands : Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Marie-Galantine, Martinique, Miquelon, Montserrat, Saba, St. Barthélemy, St. Christopher, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Pierre, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands and other British, French and Dutch islands in the Caribbean.

In our case, we had a plane ticket to Colombia.

You need ESTA, even if you are just stopping over in the United States, without even leaving the airport

Many flights from France to Canada or Mexico… are cheaper if you stop in the United States. In most countries, in the case of a transit, you stay in the international zone, so there is no need for a visa and you do not go through immigration. In the United States, even for a few hours, you will be required to obtain the ESTA, and this, from the moment you leave the airport in France… otherwise you will simply not leave.

ESTA does not allow crossing a land border

If you wish to cross the small bridge at Niagara between Canada and the United States, or if you are coming from Mexico via a land border, you do not need an ESTA, but an I-94W form

ESTA can be used only if you arrive by plane or cruise ship

By land, you will need to fill out the I-94W form

You need a biometric passport to apply for ESTA

Check if this is the case by looking for this logo on your passport

e-Passport symbol and passport

ESTA isn’t for you if you have visited these sensitive countries

Under the 2015 law, beneficiaries of the Visa Waiver Program, including French nationals, who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and/or Yemen since March 1, 2011 and all persons with dual nationality (Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria) are no longer eligible to travel under the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA).

These restrictions apply to previously approved ESTA applications as well as to all current and future ESTA travel authorization applications. Beneficiaries of the Visa Waiver Program, including French nationals, who have already obtained an ESTA travel authorization but who meet one of these criteria, are no longer eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA).

This new law does not prohibit people in these situations from traveling to the United States; however, it will be necessary to apply for a visa prior to departure and obviously be accepted.

Maximum length of stay: 90 days

This is where people are lost because the information is completely contradictory on the Internet. I would like to point out that you should always check and double-check on the official American websites. Even the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (French) may not be up to date. So for all questions related to the length of stay related to your ESTA, yes or no you need a visa . all this must be systematically checked on the site of the United States

Example 1: Multiple entries in the United States

You are allowed to enter the United States multiple times over a period of 2 years from the date of ESTA issuance. The ESTA only allows you to stay in the United States for a maximum of 90 days

  • Example 1: your ESTA is issued on January 1, 2019 and is valid until December 31, 2020
    • In March 2019, you leave France for the US. You stay 30 days in the US and then return to France
    • In January 2020, you leave France for the US. You stay 30 days in the United States and then return to France
  • All this with only one ESTA.

Be careful, with multiple entries into the United States, it is marked that there should be a reasonable period of time between visits to confirm that you aren’t living in the United States. However, these “reasonable periods of time” aren’t defined and it is the immigration officers who will decide by feeling. I guess coming back to the United States every month, even for 1 week each time, should not be considered reasonable.

Before on the ESTA website, it was marked 90 days per stay. Now, their official website has become super fuzzy and they mention “Your travel is for 90 days or less”. So I confess I don’t know if you can visit 90 days, come back xxx months later for 90 days, or it’s 90 days in total for 2 years.

The most recent news on the forums indicate a maximum of 90 days per year with a mandatory return to France to reset the counter, but I couldn’t verify this info and have reliable sources.

In any case, common sense says that if the B1/B2 visa allows you to stay up to 6 months a year in the US, it would be surprising that with ESTA, you have the same rights as a visa anyway.

Here is what is marked on the official website

Your ESTA authorization is generally valid for multiple trips for a period of two years (from the date of approval) or until your passport expires if it expires before two years*. This means that if you have obtained an ESTA travel authorization, you do not need to apply for another one for the entire period of validity. Having obtained an ESTA authorization does not mean that you can stay in the United States for two years. It only allows you to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allows you to stay in the United States for a maximum of 90 days. If you plan to stay longer than 90 days, you must obtain a visa at the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Example 2: Travel to the United States & bordering countries

Attention these infos aren’t clearly indicated on the official website of ESTA, I put you the corresponding sources.

During your stay in the United States, if you travel to neighboring countries and adjacent islands, your US meter isn’t reset.

  • Example 2: Your ESTA is issued on January 1, 2019 and is valid until December 31, 2020
    • In March 2019, you are a French resident (in metropolitan France) and are leaving France for the US. At the immigration office, you will be given a stamp indicating that you can stay in the US until May 2019.
    • You stay 30 days in the US, then 30 days in Canada (with the Canadian eTA), 10 days in the Bahamas, 10 days in Puerto Rico, 10 days in Mexico = 90 days in total
    • After your little trip, you want to come back to the United States just for a transit.
  • You will be stopped by immigration and you will be refused entry, because as you first entered through the United States and then spent time in adjacent countries and islands, your meter was triggered in March 2019 and continues to run during all this time. You have elapsed the 90 consecutive days allowed

Here are the adjacent islands in question(source)

Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Marie-Galantine, Martinique, Miquelon, Montserrat, Saba, St. Barthélemy, St. Christopher, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Pierre, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands and other British, French and Dutch islands in the Caribbean.

For your 90-day counter to actually stop, you would have had to go further, for example to Guatemala, preferably by plane Source

Example 3: Transit to the United States and then travel to neighboring countries

  • Example: your ESTA is issued on January 1, 2019 and is valid until December 31, 2020
    • In March 2019, you leave France for Mexico, you transit through the United States. After 90 days in Mexico, you transit through the United States again to catch a plane to France.
  • US Immigration will refuse you entry into the United States, because even if you have spent the entire 90 days in Mexico, your 90 days of ESTA started the day you set foot in transit through the United States.
    • On the other hand, if you leave France for Mexico, you transit via the United States. After 30 days in Mexico, you spend 60 days in Central or South America.
    • This time, you have really left the WVP zone after 30 days, so you are allowed to enter the US again. However, you must be able to prove that you have left the WVP zone with stamps and plane tickets. Source

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