ESTA - Instant ESTA’s no longer available

[bighal]

Looks like you will have to do Esta before 72 hours before departure as realtime approval has been stopped.



So no more doing it at the airport if you forget.

[Tetrarch]

I found this on the CBP Dept Homeland Security website

NEWS REMINDER: Apply for ESTA no later than 72 hours before departing for the United States. Real-time approvals will no longer be available and arriving at the airport without a previously approved ESTA will likely result in being denied boarding.

I know that “up to 72 hours” has been the caveat on approvals, but this is the first time I’ve seen a note saying that instant approval will “no longer be available”

Have any Dibbers recently had their ESTA approved instantly, or is a three day wait now the new normal?

Regards

Gary

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by Tetrarch

I found this on the CBP Dept Homeland Security website

NEWS REMINDER: Apply for ESTA no later than 72 hours before departing for the United States. Real-time approvals will no longer be available and arriving at the airport without a previously approved ESTA will likely result in being denied boarding.

I know that “up to 72 hours” has been the caveat on approvals, but this is the first time I’ve seen a note saying that instant approval will “no longer be available”

Have any Dibbers recently had their ESTA approved instantly, or is a three day wait now the new normal?

Regards

Gary

See more...

I will be doing mine in January and will let you know if nobody posts before then.

The problem we have is by going so often we just cannot apply months and months in advance like most do as it doesn't work that way for us.

[taylaboo]

I'll be doing ours at least a month before we go in case there is a problem.

[Orlando 2004]

I did a new one for dmil 2 weeks ago when I realised her passport expiry date was incorrect. It said pending but I immediately logged back in and it was approved. I think a lot of people will get caught out by this as mistakes do happen. We could quite easily have turned up at the airport this weekend and found dmil's Esta was incorrect.

[HarryPotterGeek]

I did mine last night and it took approx. 2 hours for approval

[Rach86]

We went in Sep so will not need a new one when we go next oct. However my girls need new passports. Does that mean they need a new esta or can I just update it?

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by Rach86

We went in Sep so will not need a new one when we go next oct. However my girls need new passports. Does that mean they need a new esta or can I just update it?

See more...

New passport = new ESTA

[sieborg]

I’ve witnessed on 2 occasions at check in where people have been whisked away to fill in ESTAS because they didn’t even know they had to fill them in. I’ve no sympathy for people if in future that they get denied entry in future. If you are willing to pay thousands for a holiday without doing the homework of what you need to do get entry into a country then it’s entirely your own fault. There is enough information supplied by airlines and travel agents.

[Rach86]

[QUOTE=loves2plan;13604419]New passport = new ESTA [/QUOTE

Would we all need a new one or just the new passport ones? X