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Completing an ESTA form

annieuk

By annieuk,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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annieuk

annieuk

Posted
Posted

Could anyone answer a couple of questions for me please?

When the ESTA form asks for current or previous employer and I am retired do I put the name of my last employer?

The form asks for US point of contact information and an address while in the US - presumably they are both the same - do I put the name of the ship?

 

I don't want to mess the form up when I complete it - and presumably I can apply for both myself and my husband on the same form?

I know all about ensuring it's the official form for which I believe the current fee is $14.

 

Thanks for any help in this.

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11057

11057

Posted
Posted

The ESTA is valid for 2 years or until passport runs if before.

We put Retired

We were staying with friends, so put their address. I believe you can put the name of the ship, but not 100% sure.

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tartanexile81

tartanexile81

Posted
Posted (edited)

I did mine last year and did a group ESTA which covered both of us. You can however do one for each traveller.

 

I put retired. 

 

You definitely put 'in transit' as you do not have a land-based address. 

 

Hope that helps Annie 

Edited by tartanexile81
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grapau27

grapau27

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, annieuk said:

Could anyone answer a couple of questions for me please?

When the ESTA form asks for current or previous employer and I am retired do I put the name of my last employer?

The form asks for US point of contact information and an address while in the US - presumably they are both the same - do I put the name of the ship?

 

I don't want to mess the form up when I complete it - and presumably I can apply for both myself and my husband on the same form?

I know all about ensuring it's the official form for which I believe the current fee is $14.

 

Thanks for any help in this.

If you are staying in a US hotel Pre cruise put that down otherwise just the ship name.

We have had a few ESTAS  now and they last 2 years.

Do them on the official US Homeland security site as some third party sites advertise Esta but charge more.

Ours are authorised instantly on the official site and I always print them and take them with us but to date we have never been asked to show them.

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jh1809

jh1809

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As far as I can remember, I put "In transit" and the ship name. Although I'm retired, as well as putting that I also gave the details of my previous employer, as I'd seemed safer to give too much info rather than too little. I seem to recall that you complete it and submit it online, but I also brought a printed copy with me in case I needed it.

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annieuk

annieuk

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Thank you for all those replies.  I'm pleased to hear that P&O said to put 'In Transit' as that's what I did eventually after a lot of dithering.  I submitted it last night and have yet to hear - it's very nerve wracking, worrying that I'll put the wrong thing.  Fingers crossed it will be ok.  I've done one before several years ago now and I don't remember it being the same as this form, and that was for a P&O cruise too.  Maybe the form has changed since, I think it was 2008.

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yorkshirephil

yorkshirephil

Posted
Posted

We put retired on ours and the address of the hotel we stayed the first night. We travelled to LA on this occasion,  earlier this year our first US port was New Orleans and we had no issues, we did not need to show our ESTA as the border guard could see the details on our passport on his screen, however some of the people in an adjacent queue did have to show theirs. We picked up a cruise in Vancouver last month to Alaska where the US customs is located in Vancouver at Canada place, again no problems and ESTA not requested. I will always take my paper copy though. 

 

The ESTA is still $14 pp, I believe a group ESTA can be used but don't know much about that. The ESTA lasts 2 years or until your passport expires.

 

When we applied for ours mine took 24 hours and my other half was almost instant.

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annieuk

annieuk

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Just had notification that my ESTA has been approved thank goodness.  I was going to do both mine and my husband's as a group one but in the end I just did mine so he now has to do his.  At least we know what we're doing now!

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NSWP

NSWP

Posted
Posted (edited)

Take a print out of the ESTA with you, some airports and cruise lines want to see it, plus the you never know if the US Border Protection Officer might want to see it, i.e. if their computer systems have issues.

 

The above is my experience anyway have entered the 'Land of the Free' half a dozen times through airports and sea ports.

 

Above all, Enjoy !!

Edited by NSWP
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Selbourne "Live from...." Rare

Selbourne

Posted
Posted

As others have said, it’s definitely one per person. 

 

It’s a confusing form to fill in and I couldn’t find any P&O guidance on what to put as an address (but ‘in transit’ sounds sensible) so I googled the Carnival office in New York and put that. They were accepted on that basis!

 

My wife's was accepted immediately and mine came back as ‘we need to do further checks’ which was a bit alarming, especially as it then took a few days before it was approved (mind you, I failed to pay a speeding fine when in Miami around 30 years ago so I am on America’s Most Wanted list). Anyhow it was eventually approved. I took printed copies with me just in case. They weren’t needed, but knowing what US immigration is like...

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brian1

brian1

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Posted
44 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

As others have said, it’s definitely one per person. 

 

It’s a confusing form to fill in and I couldn’t find any P&O guidance on what to put as an address (but ‘in transit’ sounds sensible) so I googled the Carnival office in New York and put that. They were accepted on that basis!

 

My wife's was accepted immediately and mine came back as ‘we need to do further checks’ which was a bit alarming, especially as it then took a few days before it was approved (mind you, I failed to pay a speeding fine when in Miami around 30 years ago so I am on America’s Most Wanted list). Anyhow it was eventually approved. I took printed copies with me just in case. They weren’t needed, but knowing what US immigration is like...

I'd watch the sky for drones if I was you,lol.

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annieuk

annieuk

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My husband has had his ESTA application approved and I've printed copies of both so hopefully we are all set.  Before I applied I did have a concern - something odd happened a couple of years ago - long after our first ESTA was approved - I had a letter, which I initially ignored from the US IRS office asking that I confirm that I was not a US citizen.  I assumed this was a scam.  A few weeks later I had a second letter more or less saying that unless I confirmed that I was not a US citizen proceedings could be taken to recover tax.  At this point I began to be a little concerned and went on to Martin Lewis' site where I found a thread all about this issue.  Quite a few people had received a similar letter.  As far as I can remember the letter had a reference of a Lloyds bank on it, and it referred to an Act which entitled the US to make enquiries if they believed the US might be owed back tax.

 

To cut a long story short it seemed to link back to where a person was born.  I was born in Windsor - Berkshire - not Windsor  Massachusetts.  Some of the people who had contacted Martin Lewis' site had similar backgrounds - they were born in a British place which had the same name as places in the US.  Not only did I have to write a letter confirming that I was born in the UK, I also had to send a copy of my passport - all this was done only when I had taken professional advice, in fact our solicitor sorted this out for me.  Apparently all this is because the UK agreed to a certain law that entitles the US to do exactly what they had done in my case. The act concerned has a name but I can't remember what it's called.   How they got information about me in the first place I don't know.  I enquired if the same applied to someone in the US who was born in say Windsor Massachusetts - did the UK want proof they were not born in Windsor UK - answer - of course not!  So as you can imagine I did wonder if this issue would raise it's head when I applied for an ESTA - it didn't.

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Britboys

Britboys

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Ah, the joys of US Immigration.  I recently applied for a new ESTA for my Alaska cruise. The only annoying thing is that my current passport runs out in less than a year so I am unlikely to use it again!  I found the form quite straight-forward but arrival in Seattle airport was a nightmare.  An hour queuing just to get into the Immigration Hall and then another hour waiting to get to the Immigration Officer!  At least he was friendly and polite once we got there.  It will make me a bit more tolerant next time I go through 'lovely' Luton airport 😄

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