Esta travel application FAQ

What if a Visa Waiver Program applicant is found to be inadmissible?

If your ESTA authorization is denied, you will unfortunately be denied admission to the United States if travelling under the Visa Waiver program. This will result in being returned to your country of origin (or the country in which you commenced travel, if it is not your country of origin and you hold a round-trip ticket) by the same carrier upon which you have already travelled.

What should a traveller do if he or she is not approved for travel through ESTA?

If your application has been denied, you can still proceed with your travel plans by applying to the standard visa process at your closest US Embassy or Consulate. ESTA only evaluates your eligibility for the Visa Waiver program, not for overall travel to the United States, and a denial for ESTA authorization does not constitute a denial of entry to the United States.

Should a traveller who is not authorized for travel through ESTA reapply?

Unless something in your circumstances has changed sufficiently to impact your traveller status, any reapplication to ESTA will give you the same result: a denial of the application to travel under the Visa Waiver program. It is extremely inadvisable, as well, to offer false or incomplete information to the ESTA process in order to change a result: this will revoke your eligibility for the Visa Waiver program permanently.

The best course of action, if your ESTA authorization is denied, is to apply to your closest US Embassy or Consulate to acquire a non-immigrant visa.

How can a traveller find out the reason a travel authorization was denied?

The ESTA website provides a link to the DHS Travel Redress Inquiry program (TRIP), to which you can put in a request for further information or redress. However, as the Department of Homeland Security has designed the ESTA system to only deny travel authorization to individuals whose self-provided information excludes them from participating in the Visa Waiver program, a TRIP inquiry does not guarantee a changed ESTA result. Likewise, US Embassies or Consulates are unable to divulge any details regarding ESTA decisions.

The best course of action, if your ESTA authorization is denied, is to apply to your closest US Embassy or Consulate to acquire a non-immigrant visa.

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