If you are planning on taking a family trip to the US in the near future, then you will need to apply for an ESTA to enable your family members to enter the US. Whether you are visiting Florida, New York, or anywhere else in the US, you require travel authorization to enter the US border.
However, each member of your travelling group must have their own ESTA, which you can send at the same time in an ESTA group application. This post includes advice from ESTA Forms about how to complete a group application for ESTA. This is what you will need:
Valid biometric passports
Each member of your travelling group will need to have a biometric passport that the ESTA will electronically link to. You will need to have the passport details with you when you submit the ESTA application, as you are required to provide this information in the application form.
The ESTA application process is completed through an online form, so you are not required to send any physical documents with your application.
Medical information
There is a set of medical questions on the ESTA application form, so if any members of your group have any medical conditions, you may need these details from their doctor’s notes so that you can accurately answer the questions.
Criminal convictions
If any member of your group has any past criminal convictions, you will also require these details. Information like the conviction code and any other details such as date of the conviction will be required when you complete the form.
Be aware that applicants with certain criminal convictions or medical conditions may have their ESTA application declined and in that case would need to apply for a visa instead to try and obtain travel authorization to enter the US.
Travel history information
There is also a question on the ESTA application related to travel to certain high risk countries, the question is:
“Have you traveled to, or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?”
So, if any member of the group has visited any of these countries you will need to check if it was in that time period.
There are a few other requirements to enable you to complete the online application, which are:
- A valid email address, as your ESTA correspondence will all be sent to your email address.
- An acceptable, valid payment card to make the application fee with.
Once you have all of the items listed above, you are ready to complete your ESTA group application. This will involve sending an individual application form for each member, but you can add the same email address for all of the correspondence to be sent to, so that you can keep all of the updates in one place to help keep track of the progress of each ESTA application.
You will usually get a response within 72 hours but sometimes it will be even sooner than this and your ESTAs will be valid immediately, remaining valid for two years, or until the linked passport expires (whichever date is sooner). Be sure to read more about the travel requirements when travelling from the UK to the USA after Brexit.
Disclosure: this is an advertorial feature with ESTA Form.