Has your plan to travel to the USA been jeopardized by the refusal of your ESTA travel authorization? You don’t understand the reasons for this refusal, and you’re wondering what your alternatives are? We’re going to give you the options available to you when your ESTA is refused, and the possible reasons for this refusal.
What options are available if ESTA is refused?
Summary :
A refused electronic travel authorization can jeopardize the entire organization of your stay in the USA. It’s advisable to apply for your travel authorization as early as possible, so as not to be caught unprepared as the day of departure approaches. If, at the end of the online application process, your ESTA authorization is refused by the American authorities, you have two options.
If you think your ESTA has been refused simply because of an error in filling in the online form, it is perfectly possible to apply again. To do this, you need to fill in the ESTA form in the same way as you did for your first application. You will, of course, have to pay a new fee for each new attempt. Each ESTA application can take up to 72 hours to be processed by the electronic systems set up for this purpose. Please bear this in mind if you plan to travel to the USA in the next few days.
If, on the other hand, you are certain that you have filled in the ESTA form with the correct information, or if several attempts fail, this means that you are not authorized to travel to the USA under the Visa Waiver Program. This doesn’t mean that you’re absolutely forbidden to enter the USA, just that you can’t do so with an ESTA. If you still want to travel to the U.S., your only alternative is to apply for a U.S. visa.
Applying for a USA visa, whether for tourism or any other purpose, always involves an appointment at the American embassy, to meet with one of the consular officers. He or she will then decide which type of visa best suits your situation.
What are the reasons for refusing ESTA authorization?
A refused ESTA authorization means that one of the conditions required by the American government has not been met. Let’s take a look at the mandatory conditions that a USA visa-exempt traveler must meet in order to stay in the United States.
You must, of course, be a foreign national from one of the member countries of the Visa Waiver Program. The list of VWP countries currently comprises 41 nations.
The ESTA document is not a paper document or a visa attached to your passport. It is linked electronically to your passport number, and will be checked by customs officials when you arrive at the US border. For this to be possible, your valid passport must be equipped with a microchip. For this reason, when the American authorities require a valid passport, they ask for a biometric or electronic passport. Applying for any other type of passport will systematically lead to travel authorization being refused. The U.S. government also requires that passports be valid for the entire duration of your stay in the country.
There is one final condition, recently introduced by the Trump administration. This concerns travelers with dual nationality who have visited certain countries since 2011. The list of countries deemed to represent a risk to the internal security of the United States of America is as follows: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen. If you have been a tourist in one of these countries since March 1, 2011, your application may be refused. If your dual nationality is Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi or Sudanese, your ESTA application is doomed to failure. To apply for a visa, you need to fill in an online form and submit it with supporting documents to the consular services of the US embassy.
Another condition to take into account when applying for an ESTA is the purpose of your stay in the United States. It must be a temporary stay, i.e. transit on American soil, or a tourist or business trip of up to 90 days via an approved airline or shipping company. If you plan to enter the U.S. for any other reason (work, study, etc.) or for a longer stay, the ESTA will not be refused, but it is not applicable, and you risk not being able to board your plane or being blocked at U.S. customs.