Returning and ESTA

[mick]

As most other PPs say I guess that 90% of Dibbers don't change the USA address - in fact I believe if you look behind the ? symbol you can put unknown as dozens of Dibbers do if they are staying in an AoA villa.

We've entered about 18 times since ESTAs were introduced in Jan 2009 and never been asked where we are specifically staying. On the odd occasion they have I just say "Davenport" which they can obviously check as I assume your API details show up with the passport swipe.

Incidentally in those 18 trips we've never been asked any other specific ESTA questions such as Joan's dad's name (he died in 1966 ) or where did Joan work when she retired in 2006.

Mick

[Thorpy]

We've certainly discussed the resort we are at with the IO. I wouldn't know whether that was specifically asked for or volunteered by us.
We've certainly done multiple trips on multiple ESTA's, never changed the ESTA and stayed at different resorts to the ESTA.

[giggler]

Changed the address on mint this year for a trip to NY.

Very easy to do, but not essential


giggler

[snowbelle]

We have been asked once where we are staying in ten trips , that was by an officer at Sanford.
My husband looked blank and he said 'I presume you are staying together?' so now we prime each other in case we get asked again, as the officer wouldn't let me open my bag to check my notes!

[Welshjim22]

Originally Posted by mfeltham

Will they not question this on arrival? The thing is my wife now has a new passport so when I create a new ESTA for her, if I leave this years address on our applications, the wife's will be different unless I lie on the application and put this years address.

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No Esta is valid for multiple entries and it is not mandatory to change address as this will come from API. In fact address is more relevant when going to residential addresses rather than Hotels, but probably most commonly used for when a medical issue arises from an arriving flight and they need to contact people.

[landandword17]

We were asked where we were staying a few times and always said the area/town or part of the city. In February when he had an unpleasant officer I said “Coronado Springs on Disney” he wanted to know if that was a hotel or condo or what. When I confirmed it was a hotel he said “that’s all I wanted to know”. So from now on I’m going to say “in a hotel/villa and the address is... ” Residential addresses do seem to raise red flags as his whole line of attack was that our 2x year trips mean we were visiting relatives. When we said a hotel he gave up questioning us and stamped the passports.
We have entered with different addresses on our ESTAs, I go to New York alone to see theatre and husband doesn’t go. Never been a problem. I assume they would ask evidence of the hotel or villa booking anyway and not just take your word for it if they thought you were lying. And i’d never, ever, ever lie to them. We got a grilling in February and the slightest white lie would have backfired spectacularly. OP is much better off updating his ESTA for his own peace of mind than even thinking about lying about addresses.


My husband leaves all the planning to me and no matter what I do I can’t get him to learn the name of the hotel(s). It does worry me because I know he’ll just stare blankly it turn to me if they address the questions to him. I gave him our folder with the itinerary on Saturday, walked into the room 5 minutes later to see if he had any input and he was fast asleep with the folder on the floor 😫

[mick]

Originally Posted by landandword17

We were asked where we were staying a few times and always said the area/town or part of the city. In February when he had an unpleasant officer I said “Coronado Springs on Disney” he wanted to know if that was a hotel or condo or what. When I confirmed it was a hotel he said “that’s all I wanted to know”. So from now on I’m going to say “in a hotel/villa and the address is... ” Residential addresses do seem to raise red flags as his whole line of attack was that our 2x year trips mean we were visiting relatives. When we said a hotel he gave up questioning us and stamped the passports.
We have entered with different addresses on our ESTAs, I go to New York alone to see theatre and husband doesn’t go. Never been a problem. I assume they would ask evidence of the hotel or villa booking anyway and not just take your word for it if they thought you were lying. And i’d never, ever, ever lie to them. We got a grilling in February and the slightest white lie would have backfired spectacularly. OP is much better off updating his ESTA for his own peace of mind than even thinking about lying about addresses.


My husband leaves all the planning to me and no matter what I do I can’t get him to learn the name of the hotel(s). It does worry me because I know he’ll just stare blankly it turn to me if they address the questions to him. I gave him our folder with the itinerary on Saturday, walked into the room 5 minutes later to see if he had any input and he was fast asleep with the folder on the floor 😫

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We've never been asked to expand on "Davenport" where there's possibly over 30 villa communities. I do put our US address on the ESTA as we've stayed at the same villa 13 times so I guess the ESTA address hasn't changed since around 2011. I'm always assuming that they have sight of our API anyway so I could give them the full address including the ZIP code if they were that keen but "over in Davenport" seems to satisfy them.

Mick

[landandword17]

Originally Posted by mick

We've never been asked to expand on "Davenport" where there's possibly over 30 villa communities. I do put our US address on the ESTA as we've stayed at the same villa 13 times so I guess the ESTA address hasn't changed since around 2011. I'm always assuming that they have sight of our API anyway so I could give them the full address including the ZIP code if they were that keen but "over in Davenport" seems to satisfy them.

Mick

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I was never asked to expand on my answer before either, February was the first so you never know, always best to have the information anyway.

[mfeltham]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I have updated the address, especially as the wife needs a new ESTA (New passport) and therefore I wanted to make sure all our ESTA's matched. Would of looked odd if she had a different address to ours.

[PPM]

Originally Posted by mfeltham

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I have updated the address, especially as the wife needs a new ESTA (New passport) and therefore I wanted to make sure all our ESTA's matched. Would of looked odd if she had a different address to ours.

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Ok that you have done it, but not really needed. But if you feel better having done so then it has been worthwhile.

An example of addresses being different on each ESTA :-
Six of us went two years ago, 4 with different addresses and me and Mrs PPM with UNKNOWN on our two.
As said before Immigration get the address info from the API