US Visa Waiver.
 

Hi,

Could anyone help answer a quick query. If I travel to the states as a Brit, I can enter the country on the Visa waiver. Do I need to leave the country from the same airport though? Looking to travel to LAS and head home from LAX.

Cheers

you can leave from any airport in the US on the visa waiver. Please make sure you qualify for the VISA waiver, (ie never been arrested before - no matter how long ago) and you will also need to complete an ESTA for which there is a charge.

Hi, I have entered the USA and exited from a different port many times, without any problems. Now that the ESTA system is properly up and running, you do not have to fill out the old green visa waiver form, just the blue and white customs form.
The ESTA is pretty easy to fill out on-line, you now have to pay (I think it is $15?) but you will need your passport details, and if you have to address (inc ZIP code) of your first nights stay, it will help, and save you having to get back into the system to enter these details. Once the ESTA approval comes through, it is valid for 2 years.

Have a great trip.

Don't forget about moral turpetude!!!

Esta info available here

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

As noted once it is accepted it is valid for 2 years..and you can change info if you are retravelling to the US in that time (ie hotel, address you are staying etc).

You don't even have to fly home from a USA airport. Last year I went to Seattle (non stop) and back from Vancouver. In fact I went to the USA, crossed by land to Canada (BC and Yukon) back into the USA (Alaska) before finally arriving in Canada and leaving from Vancouver non stop to London. All on Visa Waiver/ESTA.

Don't forget about moral turpetude!!!


fortunately there are no spelling requirements

Just for the fun of it (might have a visit to the USA) filled in the ESTA for $14 I presume my application for the ESTA would check any criminal violations I may have in the UK seconds later after payment process I got my Application number and the expiration date.

Following the "moral turpitude" link I find my offence (right hand column, headings) on the wilki site 'drunk' driving does not constitute a offence under 'moral turpitude' Although my offence was failing to supply a breath sample. So I presume I'd be AOK for the visa waiver on flight to the US.

If not why? What's the point of the ESTA? If not to check out future visitors to the US.

I would be very surprised if the Americans would have carte blanche access to another countries databases to verify what you are saying is true. (and proving a negative is always more difficult). (I'm not discounting that some EU governments could give access, but that would be contrary to the data protection regulations/laws)

Of course they do have access to the airline's PNR data, through agreement with the EU.

I think the value they see in ESTA is that they have the information in advance, and that they retain the right to kick you out (or not let you in) if you lie on your application.

I have never seen the point of having to state where you will be staying on your first might in the US. How do they check that, and why would they even bother ?

wowzz - I think it's partly to check that you actually have somewhere to stay and partly so they can contact you if needs be. They rarely if ever check it out, but I guess they could if they wanted.

I've had interesting conversations with immigration, firstly when transferring flights at LAX on a AKL-LHR trip when I was only in the US for 4 hours and secondly at IAD when my first night was on an Amtrak sleeper service. Slightly raised eyebrows on their part, but it was all treated fairly humo(u)rously.

It is misleading to say that the USA has visa waivers any longer. The ESTA is quite clearly a visa under a different name, complete with visa-like fees, the need to have it before departure, etc.