ESTA REFUSED, HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT?

ESTA is a fairly recent system set up by the Department of Homeland Security. It is now possible to travel to the United States without a visa. This system enables the authorities to filter who can enter the United States, as certain profiles of travelers are refused entry to avoid any risk and to ensure the country’s security. An ESTA application is rarely rejected unless the authorities have doubts that you may be endangering their country and its citizens.

Are you planning a trip to Uncle Sam’s country and have applied for ESTA? Unfortunately, your ESTA has been refused, you don’t understand why and you don’t know what to do to fly to the United States anyway?

Moving to the USA isn’t always easy, but our team is here to explain the reasons why, and how to resolve the situation.

WHY IS MY ESTA REJECTED?

The United States receives a huge number of ESTA applications, and as they can’t process them all themselves because response times would be too long, the form you fill in to apply is first scanned and analyzed by a robot. At the slightest comma or typo, an immigration officer checks the form. This agent can decide whether or not to issue you ESTA authorization. Administrative formalities are strict in the United States, and you have to meet all the necessary requirements. If your ESTA has been refused, here are the most common reasons for refusal:

• the purpose of the stay is not compatible with an ESTA. If you’re coming for anything other than tourism, transit or business, you’ll need to apply for a visa. To study, do an internship or work, you need a visa;
• your stay is too long! Your return ticket does not match. You are not allowed to stay in the U.S. for more than 90 days. If you wish to stay for six months, you must apply for a visa;
• you don’t arrive in the USA by air or sea;
• you are not part of the ESTA program and therefore cannot benefit from it;
• you are a dual citizen of one of the countries prohibited from entering the U.S., such as Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen or Sudan;
• you already have an ESTA or a valid application;
• your criminal record is considered by the authorities to be a danger to the country (offences, criminal record);
• your state of health is not suitable for American conditions (you have contracted infectious, contagious or mental diseases in the past);
• your valid ESTA passport does not correspond to the correct format, it must be biometric or electronic;
• the validity of your passport has expired ;
• the last, and most frequently encountered, is a typing error, e.g. in a passport number or in the spelling of a surname…

Check the form you sent to the U.S. authorities. One of the errors listed is certainly the reason why your ESTA was refused. It is also possible to update your ESTA, but only for certain information.

In the next paragraph, we’ll look at how to solve this rejection problem and move to the USA.

ESTA USA REFUSED, WHAT TO DO?

After submitting an ESTA application, you must receive a positive reply within 72 hours. Unfortunately, in the case of a refused ESTA, you receive no notification from the agency in charge of ESTA verification.

First of all, if you haven’t heard from us, the most important thing is to find out where the error that prevented you from obtaining your ESTA came from. To do this, contact the Travel Redress Inquiry Program as soon as possible, which handles claims for refused ESTAs. It really is safer to apply for your ESTA document in advance.

Depending on the problem, you can submit a new application. In fact, if the refusal was due to a simple typo, all you have to do is wait 10 days to fill in a new form. If the duration of your trip was excessive, try changing your tickets to meet the ESTA program criteria, i.e. for less than three months (90 days maximum). If you’ve just realized that your passport is neither a biometric nor an e-passport, you can always apply for a new passport to retry ESTA later and leave for the United States. A trip to the USA is yours! Now you can live your American dream!

If you don’t want to make this kind of mistake and waste your time, there are private sites that can do it for you. Our site usa-visas.net offers its services to provide you with the document. Our team, accustomed to this kind of meticulous request, will take care of everything for you. All you have to do is fill in our simplified online form. Your online request will be processed as soon as possible.

In any case, if the rejection is about something else, you should surely turn to a classic USA visa application.