Visa required for the USA?

[pastafarian]

The homeland chaps are as dry as they come,prob best to have a better memory than me and get your lingo correct

when was the last time you entered The United States
it must have been last christmas
our records show you were here 4 months ago
really...oh crap i forgot.... yes sorry i came over for 4 days to watch the England game
you came all this way to watch a soccer match?
umm yes
what was the result
to be honest i cant remember i was off my tits for 4 days
off your tits?
yes,you know pissed as hell
are you always angry when you are in the United States?
eh?

nervously looked around for rubber gloves to be handed out

 

[kingcole]

i was asking about the chipped passport , i went to miami on a non chipped one 3 years ago but still needed an esta.

Your Esta will be denied if you apply now with a non chipped passport

 

[pastafarian]

Just lie, the US authorities have no access to UK criminal records other than for terrorism related stuff.

so true,if you have been nicked for doing coke you will get in,as they have no idea.....if you have been nicked for doing coke and you are a well known celebrity chances are you will get grief because you love people knowing your business/private life...........who is the dickead now?

Free cunning fergus

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The homeland chaps are as dry as they come,prob best to have a better memory than me and get your lingo correct

when was the last time you entered The United States
it must have been last christmas
our records show you were here 4 months ago
really...oh crap i forgot.... yes sorry i came over for 4 days to watch the England game
you came all this way to watch a soccer match?
umm yes
what was the result
to be honest i cant remember i was off my tits for 4 days
off your tits?
yes,you know pissed as hell
are you always angry when you are in the United States?
eh?

nervously looked around for rubber gloves to be handed out

I have had grief numerous times. My favourite was when I flew to Detroit:

What you doing in Detroit: Vacation
Vacation? No one comes to Detroit for vacation buddy, what you doing here?: I'm here on vacation.
Vacation, Detroit, what's there to see?: I then list numerous things.
You staying here all the time?: No, I'm going to Minneapolis as well.
What for?: a wedding.
A wedding, who's wedding, you getting married buddy?: No, a friend's wedding.
Etc etc.

 

[oddsonlaughter]

Got in by being honest about it and they didn't care, or got in by lying on the form and they didn't check ?

To be honest a bit of both,

Under the old questions you had to declare any arrest but under the new system he answered no as it says "serious" and he got a small fine so was minor, the difficulty we had was whether question 5 was relating to fraud and visas or just fraud relating to visas but after a lot of conflicting advice he went with no and was fine as well

TBH the questions are so vague its difficult to know what to say accurately, the cynic in me says they do it so they can get extra visa Embassy fees as it is expensive to go down that route

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Just imagine if you had to endure this nonsense every time you popped over to Europe #Remain

 

[oddsonlaughter]

Scenario is that me and me and my family are off to the states for 3 months in June. When I applied for the esta for my 6 yr old daughter, I scrolled to "no" for the question "have you ever out stayed your welcome in the USA?" However, the mouse had different ideas and logged a "yes". So at present, me, my wife, my 4 yr old son can all go to the states, however my 6 yr old can't! I've got a question logged with the border and customs police, however i reckon its gonna be a trip to the embassy with my daughter to sort this out. Sigh

Hiya whatever you do dont go to the Embassy as they will charge you a fortune to sort it

If you go to

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1088/~/i-made-a-mistake-on-my-esta-application

And click the email us a question button they will fix mistakes like that

They sorted mine out when I was incorrectly listed as being in America for over the time limit- they had not logged me leaving on the system

There is a phone number as well and although its the cost of a call to the USA still FAR cheaper than the Embassy

 

[sparkie]

To be honest a bit of both,

Under the old questions you had to declare any arrest but under the new system he answered no as it says "serious" and he got a small fine so was minor, the difficulty we had was whether question 5 was relating to fraud and visas or just fraud relating to visas but after a lot of conflicting advice he went with no and was fine as well

TBH the questions are so vague its difficult to know what to say accurately, the cynic in me says they do it so they can get extra visa Embassy fees as it is expensive to go down that route

Question 2 is very odd.

What if you were arrested for a murder you didn't commit, and were released without charge ?

Clearly it resulted in no harm as you didn't do anything, but the result of such a crime is harmful ?

They are about as clear as HB&B.

 

[Ernest]

I was amazed to clear immigration in under 15 minutes this week. Being quick off the plane (and ignoring the passport scanners that never work) helps but given recent events in Paris & Brussels I expected heightened security.
It'll certainly take longer getting back into UK.

I was through Terminal 5 in a few minutes , couldn't believe how badly organised it was in Dallas, total farce

 

[Official Old Man]

Leaving a small airport a few years ago en-route to a hub to get home, we were the only 'tourists' and got well and truly stung with searches. Couple of hours whilst they went through everything.

 

[dazzer6666]

Terminal 7 at JFK can be a right pain....BA seem to share it with Cathay, so if you arrive just after one of theirs has landed, you can easily queue for an hour or more. Tampa is my favourite airport - always seem to fly through passport control (wherever you are going use the machines if they have them, will be loads quicker) and always be nice to the border staff, they're usually ok and have undergone a lot of 'customer service training' [emoji3]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

If you fly from Dublin or Shannon you are pre-cleared by US Immigration in Ireland and just collect your bags and go straight to your taxi when you arrive in the States. There is talk about extending pre-clearance to other European airports including Heathrow.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

If you fly from Dublin or Shannon you are pre-cleared by US Immigration in Ireland and just collect your bags and go straight to your taxi when you arrive in the States. There is talk about extending pre-clearance to other European airports including Heathrow.

Would it be easier to sort out the staff and facilities on the US side?

 

[dazzer6666]

If you fly from Dublin or Shannon you are pre-cleared by US Immigration in Ireland and just collect your bags and go straight to your taxi when you arrive in the States. There is talk about extending pre-clearance to other European airports including Heathrow.

I did this from London City too - works ok but adding the stop in Shannon makes the overall door-to-door time similar

 

[ofco8]

Had a strange experience about 10 years or so ago.
Four of us were holidaying in the Montreal area of Canada and decided we would drive into Vermont USA for a day trip.

We went through the Canadian border post ok but when we reached the USA border we had to fill in lots of forms and pay a $10 fee each for the temporary pass.
We never had any US $ so me and my brother had to walk back to the Canadian post to change some Canadian to US dollars. Scarily it left us walking between the Canadian and US border without a passport or any other documents to prove who we were, as our wives and US officials were dealing with the paperwork in our absence. Strangely you could exchange currency in the Canadian border post but not US.

Anyway, all resolved but when we travelled back over the border at midnight both posts were closed so we just drove through but we still had the Green form we should have passed back to the US border guards when we left. Worried that we might be banned entering the US again we sent the Green forms to the US Embassy in London on our return home.

Luckily, have returned to US subsequently with no problems.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I think that the US is trying to improve immigration clearance times with the introduction of the new automated machines. Some airports are better than others for delays and service. Always hated JFK although I found Newark much better.

A few years ago, I flew to Newark with Mrs DCH for our 10th wedding anniversary. The security bloke looked at my declaration form, looked at me, back at the form and very seriously asked me to reconfirm my reason for visiting. I started getting worried, thinking I had filled something out incorrectly.

I repeated that we were there for our 10th wedding anniversary and he said "you have stated on the form that you have less than $10,000 in cash - is that correct?" I replied that it was at which point, still dead-pan, he said to me " you do know that Tiffany's is in Manhattan and that you should be buying your wife a really nice gift from there". He then broke out in big grin and wished us a very pleasant stay!

 

[Marty___Mcfly]

I think you'll be fine with MasterCard and definitely Amex.

 

[the slow norris]

Hiya whatever you do dont go to the Embassy as they will charge you a fortune to sort it

If you go to

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1088/~/i-made-a-mistake-on-my-esta-application

And click the email us a question button they will fix mistakes like that

They sorted mine out when I was incorrectly listed as being in America for over the time limit- they had not logged me leaving on the system

There is a phone number as well and although its the cost of a call to the USA still FAR cheaper than the Embassy

Hi there, that's great to know. As soon as I noticed the error I filled out a question on that exact site. That was 10 days ago now and haven't heard anything. How long did it take for your issue to be resolved? It's great to know you've had success from this route, I've got the phone numbers to hand if i need to escalate it further.

 

[Springal]

US immigration has improved a lot recently. Went into JFK last week, about 40mins but we were behind a queue of Ukranian Airways flight...

Saying that they took a good look at some of my stamps, Moldova, Qatar, Egypt..

Qatar particularly as he couldn't fathom that I had been and my missus hadn't.

 

[Ernest]

I thought USA immigration was a complete cluster f**k, get off the plane at 430pm, first MASSIVE queue is automated passport checker which 95% of people failed so then joined another MASSIVE line for an immigration officer to stamp passport, took nearly 90minutes for that followed by MASSIVE queue to get through customs, nearly 2 3/4hrs from leaving the plane to getting outside the airport.

And people complain about Heathrow.