ESTA application

[majortom10]

Have to apply for ESTA's for my future roundtrip TA to New York on QM2. Looking at website it says you can apply for individual or group. Is it acceptable for a married couple going at the same time to apply for a group ESTA or is it best to apply for 2 separate individual ESTA's.

 

[ace2542]

53 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Have to apply for ESTA's for my future roundtrip TA to New York on QM2. Looking at website it says you can apply for individual or group. Is it acceptable for a married couple going at the same time to apply for a group ESTA or is it best to apply for 2 separate individual ESTA's.

 

I always do mine and my father's applications are two seperate ones one after the other. And fwiw I don't book American travel WITHOUT having an approved ESTA but that is just me. I would deffo make sure you have approval before booking any cruise as it is a lot less hassle.

[elmsliebev]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Have to apply for ESTA's for my future roundtrip TA to New York on QM2. Looking at website it says you can apply for individual or group. Is it acceptable for a married couple going at the same time to apply for a group ESTA or is it best to apply for 2 separate individual ESTA's.

 

we've done both. Last time I applied separately. As they run for 2 years I decided just in case one of us ended up going to the US on our own (unlikely) it would be easier if we had our own individual ESTA. My husband's came through immediately, mine took 24 hours so don't be concerned if that happens to you! 

[elmsliebev]

8 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

I always do mine and my father's applications are two seperate ones one after the other. And fwiw I don't book American travel WITHOUT having an approved ESTA but that is just me. I would deffo make sure you have approval before booking any cruise as it is a lot less hassle.

we were in the situation when we married that I couldn't apply for mine until my passport in my new name was valid! Our trip was our honeymoon but we had a week at home after the wedding before we flew to NYC for our TA. The helpful people at Homeland Security had suggested applying on the way to the airport....

[buchanan101]

Pretty sure a Group application still gives you individual ESTAs; I think that's what i did last time - apply for me and OH as a group.

 

They call it a "GROUP OF APPLICATIONS", not a "GROUP APPLICATION"

[buchanan101]

The ESTA website is not very clear, but this FAQ refers to "all applications" in the group.

So a group Application is just a slightly more convenient way of doing 2 or more individual ones

 

When I submit the payment for a group of applications, will I receive the ESTA status for all of the applications at the same time?

Yes. The payment amount will appear once all applications have a status of "Authorization Approved" or "Travel Not Authorized". If any application in the group returns a status of "Authorization Pending", the payment amount will be withheld until all the applications in the group have been approved or denied.