Help! Have I made a mistake?

[parthiban]

I'm travelling to Orlando over xmas and had assumed that I didn't need to do the online ESTA registration as I'm returning from the US on 8th Jan 09.

However, someone told me today that I do need to do it, and I'm worried that I've made a mistake. I'm annoyed with myself as it would have been such an easy thing to do to stay on the safe side, but I'm hoping it will be fine?

Any help would be much appreciated [msnsmile]

[Jill]

Don't panic. You are correct you do not need an online ESTA as you will be returning to the UK before the scheme starts on 12 January. I think some people have got confused and assumed the start date to be the 1st January.

If you want to apply for one before you travel it is very easy and we got approval immediately. The link is https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.h...6-44D2F3775EE4

[parthiban]

Thanks Jill, I thought I had seen the 12th as the date it starts but looking on the US Embassy site I couldn't find any date anywhere.....having said that I have now found it so feeling a bit better [msnsmile]

I was worried about doing it so late as I'm flying out on Monday and it says to do it 72 hours before - should I go ahead and fill it in or is it better to just leave it now?

[blott]

You don't need to do anything about ESTA unless you're travelling to the US on or after 12 January 2009.

If you're arriving on Monday, you'll be perfectly fine - we arrived on 12 December and just filled in the normal visa waiver form.

[Sally D]

Sorry to be dumb,but we are going in July 2009 so do I need to register all 5 of us for this[?]

[brownm]

Yes Sally you will need to register all of you after Jan 12th 2009

[Jill]

Once you have registered, which is free at the moment, it is valid for a period of 2 years.

[Sally D]

Thank you.

Glad I read this, didn't know things had changed.

I will get on and register today.

[parthiban]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm happy now, can't wait for the sunshine! [msnsmile2]

[Ian Dee]

I too made a mistake when I registered with ESTA before our recent trip over, came back on last Tuesday. I registered with the wrong expiry date of my Passport; 2010 when its 2016.

I left it until I came back and have just tried to register 'afresh'. Back comes the answer. "..passport number already registered" so I cannot register the correct expiry date.

However it seems that from the aboce ESTA is only valued for 2 years so presumably I can re-register after 2010.[msnembarrased]