Frequent asked questions United States visa

Yes, provided the validity of your ESTA has not yet expired. Please note that each stay in the United States may be for a maximum of 90 consecutive days.

• It is also important that you check at each entry whether your passport is still valid and whether it is the same passport used to apply for the ESTA. Since the passport and the ESTA are linked, you must apply for a new ESTA travel authorization if you are traveling on a new passport.

If you urgently need an ESTA, you only need to tick the option “urgent” on the online application form. If you submit this urgent application, it will be processed immediately and you will usually be granted with the ESTA within an hour. 

Please note: this is an average delivery time and no warranty can be given here, in exceptional cases an urgent application can only be made after 72 give an hourly answer.

Yes, children and infants must also apply for their own ESTA. However, this action may be carried out by the legal representative.

Yes, you also need to apply for an ESTA when making a layover.

Working in the United States with an ESTA is only permitted if it falls under a business trip. In any case, it is not allowed to be employed by a U.S. employer under an ESTA.

If you intend to be employed by a U.S. employer, you must apply for a visa for the United States; please contact us for more information and inquire about the possibilities.

In general, an ESTA is valid for 2 years or until your passport expires. The ESTA travel authorization is initially valid for 2 years from the date it is granted, which is the date indicated on the digital form you receive via email after your ESTA is approved. However, an ESTA may expire earlier if it is revoked for any reason or if your passport expires within the validity period of the ESTA. Since the passport is linked to your ESTA, you must enter the country with the same passport used for the application.

If your ESTA travel authorization has expired and you wish to travel to the United States again, you must apply for a new ESTA. Existing ESTA travel authorizations cannot be extended.

The granting and receipt of an ESTA travel authorization does not guarantee that you will be allowed entry into the United States. Upon your arrival, a Customs and Border Protection officer may still deny you entry, for example, if it is suspected that admission is undesirable for political or security reasons, or if there are doubts about the truthfulness of the answers you provided on the ESTA application form.

Therefore, while an ESTA travel authorization is mandatory, it is not the only requirement for being admitted into the United States.

If your ESTA application is denied, it is no longer possible to submit a new ESTA application with amended information. In the case of an ESTA denial, you can apply for a visa to the United States; please contact us for options. Since the denial of an ESTA travel authorization only prohibits travel under the Visa Waiver Program, it does not determine whether or not you are eligible for a visa to enter the United States.

Status holders residing in the Netherlands who hold a residence permit cannot apply for an ESTA. Only travelers with an officially issued Dutch passport may apply for an ESTA.

If you are a status holder with a residence permit but do not have a Dutch passport, it is only possible to travel to the United States with a physical visa; please contact us for options in this case.

A child (with or without accompaniment) must also have their own ESTA to travel in the United States. Please note that it is not possible to apply for an ESTA for children who are listed in one of the parent’s passports. Each child therefore needs their own passport and ESTA to be able to travel in the United States. Of course, it is possible for parents to apply for the ESTA on behalf of their child.

If your application is denied, do not travel without a valid travel authorization but contact us to inquire about the possibility of traveling to the United States.

If you have been to Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Somalia, or Syria after March 10, 2011, you cannot apply for an ESTA travel authorization through our website. Also, if you hold or have ever held a passport from any of these countries, you are not eligible for an ESTA travel authorization. In that case, you should contact the U.S. Embassy to find out if you are allowed to travel to the United States.

Travelers with Dutch and Belgian nationality do not need a visa for the United States of America for stays of less than 90 days. However, travelers without a visa do need a valid ESTA. An ESTA is easier and cheaper to apply for than a visa. Before applying, please check whether you meet the conditions of the ESTA.
Travelers who hold a valid visa for the United States of America do not need to apply for an ESTA.
You must apply for a visa for the United States of America if:

• You want to stay in the United States for more than 90 days at a time.
• You want to travel to the United States other than for business or tourist purposes.
• You want to travel with your own ship or private plane
• You want to work / join an American Employer.
• You are not admitted because of the “Immigration and Nationality Act (212)”

An ESTA is mandatory for everyone, including children and babies. Even for a layover in America, you must have an ESTA. Without a valid travel authorization, you will not be allowed to enter the U.S. It is not possible to obtain this upon arrival. You can apply for an ESTA at Traveldocs by filling out a document and sending it to us along with a scan of your passport and passport photo. You will receive your ESTA within 72 hours.

For anyone who does not have a U.S. or Canadian passport, a U.S. residence permit, or a U.S. visa, applying for an ESTA is mandatory if they want to travel to the United States. An ESTA is cheaper and easier to apply for than a visa, and it is suitable if you are not planning to work (under employment) in the United States and your stay is less than 90 days. If you are going on vacation, doing temporary business, or transiting through the U.S., applying for an ESTA is the cheapest and easiest way to enter the country.

If your trip to the United States of America aligns with the purpose of travel and falls within the validity period of the issued visa, you do not need to apply for an ESTA. However, if you are traveling for a different purpose than what is stated in your visa or outside the validity period of the visa, you must apply for an ESTA. In such cases, ensure that you meet the requirements for an ESTA.

Filling out the ESTA form online takes approximately ten minutes. Once the corresponding payment is processed, the application will be handled by us. If you have chosen an expedited application, the ESTA is usually granted digitally one hour after payment processing. In exceptional cases, this can take longer, up to a maximum of 72 hours.

The reason some approvals take longer (typically no more than a few hours) is because all applications are processed through the automated system of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Most applications are approved immediately, but in some cases, the system decides that an application needs to be reviewed by an immigration officer. In such cases, the processing time depends on the current workload of the immigration department. At Traveldocs, we have no control over the processing time of the ESTA once it is under review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

First, check your spam folder if you have applied for an ESTA and believe you have not received it. You can also check the status of your application online 24/7.

If you are in a hurry, you can apply for an ESTA with priority by selecting the “urgent” option on the online application form. These applications are processed faster. The additional fee for this procedure can be found on this page.

The Visa Waiver Program, which includes the ESTA Travel Authorization Application, requires a number of things:

• Your passport must be valid throughout the stay in the United States. The ESTA travel authorization is linked to the passport with which the application was submitted, so if you use another passport, the validity of the ESTA travel authorization will immediately expire and you must submit a new application for an ESTA travel authorization with the new passport. to serve.
• On the page with the personal data, the passport must have a machine-readable zone (all Dutch and Belgian passports meet this requirement).
• The passport must also contain a digital chip containing the biometric data of the card holder. This logo can be found on the cover of the passport.
  
  Example E-logo:
  
• An emergency passport must also be an electronic version, in the paper version (without E logo and chip) you will not be assigned an ESTA travel authorization.

You can enter nine zeros (000000000) in the input field on the application form.

Document numbers in the Netherlands never contain the letter “O”, but they can contain the number “0”. Even though it seems that there is a letter O in your passport, it will be the number 0. It is also important to know that document numbers in the Netherlands are 9 characters long.
Belgian document numbers may include the letter (s) “O” and / or the number “0”. Belgian document numbers are 8 characters long and always start with 2 letters followed by 6 numbers.