ESTA query

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i don’t need an ESTA when I travel to the U.S., as I have a multiple entry visa in my passport, so I’m not au fait with procedures when an error has been made on application for ESTA.
My wife's brother and his wife came to us for help in filling out the online application for their upcoming trip to the U.S., as a), they are both as thick as ****, him marginally more so, and b), they are both fully paid up technophobes, in possession of some kind of pound shop kindle, that he watches football and horse racing on, and is capable of sending and receiving email but that service is never used, as they have difficulty spelling their own names.
I digress, somehow, with my wife’s assistance, they stumbled through the questions, and submitted both forms, then, 48 hours later, my wife’s sister-in-law realised that she’d answered YES to the question, ‘are you a citizen or national of another country’, presumably other than the one that she holds a passport for, U.K.
She came back to us, stressing as to how she could, if possible, rectify this.
I went online, found the relevant site, and typed the query for her, but wrote it as if I was her husband, saying, “we made a mistake on my wife's application, can it be rectified, if not, we are perfectly willing to submit a new one, and pay another $14, yours, her husband”
 
TL;DR:

Someone ballsed up and answered a question wrong on an ESTA application, how fix?


Answer: Email / call them and explain as you have done and see what they say.
 
I’m sorry, I clicked post reply before I’d finished, I was going to say that my wife’s sister-in-law said, “They won’t entertain this as you said that my husband has submitted the query, they’ll only deal with the applicant, me.”
This is now possibly all academic, as my wife called the query line, posing as her sister-in-law, and they talked her through the process, and eventually said, Application Approved, and she brought it up online, and printed it.
Please God that she gets admitted when she lands at O’Hare, but I’d be inclined to spend the day at Grosvenor Square, and get something on CBP headed paper that says I’m good to go.
Even then, if the guy on the desk in Chicago has had a bad day, he can still decide to refuse entry.
 
I took my mum to New York for christmas and she had renewed her passport but hadnt updated the ESTA to reflect the new number. It took 6 hours in a dirty room where i wasn't allowed to join her with armed americans who take themselves way too seriously.

Save yourself the headache, get a new one.
 
This is now possibly all academic, as my wife called the query line, posing as her sister-in-law, and they talked her through the process, and eventually said, Application Approved, and she brought it up online, and printed it.

If it's showing as approved and the details are correct it'll be fine.

I took my mum to New York for christmas and she had renewed her passport but hadnt updated the ESTA to reflect the new number. It took 6 hours in a dirty room where i wasn't allowed to join her with armed americans who take themselves way too seriously.

I've been in that room a bunch of times, I do so much travel on ESTAs they keep dragging me in there and quizzing me to check I'm not working there, they do my head in - don't listen to a damn thing I say, eventually they let me through... They do take themselves way too seriously...
 
Given past experience even being legit, avoid flying into JFK for New York. Life becomes much easier!
 
Given past experience even being legit, avoid flying into JFK for New York. Life becomes much easier!

Amen to that brother, I’ve always found Newark a lot more relaxed.

If it's showing as approved and the details are correct it'll be fine.

The details as submitted originally are not correct, and even though it’s showing as approved after a telephone query, I’d be sweating tears of blood as I approached immigration at O’Hare.
 
With the EU awash with illegal and undocumented migrants I think it is excellent countries like the USA and Israel show a robust approach to checking documentation. Instead of moaning about it we should be learning from it...
 
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The details as submitted originally are not correct, and even though it’s showing as approved after a telephone query, I’d be sweating tears of blood as I approached immigration at O’Hare.

I read through the post, and as far as I can tell she answered the question relating to nationality incorrectly, but they corrected that over the phone? which information is wrong?

** Removed **

It's not that I don't think the rules apply to me, it's the way they're enforced - I usually go via CBP pre-clearance at Dublin, where you clear US immigration in Dublin itself, then the flight to the US is a domestic flight - you just get your bags when you arrive.

The problem is, I get asked a bunch of questions, I get grilled over the honest, easy answers, provide my sponsor information - then I get thrown into a room, meanwhile they de-board me, take my suitcase off the plane, then proceed to waste about an hour leaving me stranded - wait until the plane is almost ready to leave, then they decide "it's fine now sir" and let me on my way, meanwhile I'm going crackers wondering what will happen if they don't let me in - £thousands hanging in the lifeline, the conversations I might have to have with my employer if they deny my entry.

This happens to me every other time, last time their system broke and the CBP official having cleared me, couldn't re-board me onto the plane it took ages to fix and they had to hold the ******* plane at the gatehouse whilst they waited for me, it's all bloody stupid.
 
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There are those that if put through the mangle three times would still emerge dripping wet. (Or at least damp ;))

Robust discussion is considered dangerous to our youth these days!
 
I read through the post, and as far as I can tell she answered the question relating to nationality incorrectly, but they corrected that over the phone? which information is wrong?

You read it right Screeeech, but knowing how hinky immigration officials are, all over the world, in particular the U.S.A., I can imagine something being lost in translation between whoever checked the ESTA application, and decided, “good to go”, and the person checking passports at Chicago O’Hare.
I imagine that everything will be as sweet as a nut, but I still wouldn’t relax until Admitted at Chicago was stamped in my passport, and the person in the booth said, “Welcome to the U.S.A.”

With the EU awash with illegal and undocumented migrants I think it is excellent countries like the USA and Israel show a roust approach to checking documentation. Instead of moaning about it we should be learning from it...

I hope that roust was a typo for robust Chris, roust in U.S. Police terms can mean
“to give someone a hard time”, i.e. arrest them but not while wearing kid gloves.
 
You read it right Screeeech, but knowing how hinky immigration officials are, all over the world, in particular the U.S.A., I can imagine something being lost in translation between whoever checked the ESTA application, and decided, “good to go”, and the person checking passports at Chicago O’Hare.
I imagine that everything will be as sweet as a nut, but I still wouldn’t relax until Admitted at Chicago was stamped in my passport, and the person in the booth said, “Welcome to the U.S.A.”

I *imagine* it'll be fine, but I'd tell her to come clean and admit there was an error, if she's questioned over it - she called the ESTA people and they said it was fine, she might get pulled for secondary, but provided there are no other issues it'll almost certainly be fine, I don't think she'd get denied entry. I once got pulled into secondary because the airline screwed some of my details up - they could see what had happened and fixed it.
 
I *imagine* it'll be fine, but I'd tell her to come clean and admit there was an error, if she's questioned over it - she called the ESTA people and they said it was fine, she might get pulled for secondary, but provided there are no other issues it'll almost certainly be fine, I don't think she'd get denied entry. I once got pulled into secondary because the airline screwed some of my details up - they could see what had happened and fixed it.

I feel that you’re probably right, and I hope you are, but that’s why I said in my post # 4, that I’d happily spend a day at Grosvenor Square, in the hope that I got something official on U.S. embassy paper, saying Jean-Francois can enter the U.S., or in this case, my wife’s sister-in-law can.
 
There are those that if put through the mangle three times would still emerge dripping wet. (Or at least damp ;))

Robust discussion is considered dangerous to our youth these days!

A very clever code.

There's disagreeing, and there's calling someone a "lard brained idiot" or whatever the term was that's now been deleted because it was inappropriate. If you can't eloquently express your feelings without resulting to name calling and ignoring facts, which of us doesn't belong?

Anyway problem appears to be solved, and OP loks like he's on track with his question.
 
Resubmit.

Other than that; I can only offer, one of many wonderful interactions I have had with US Immigration control. This one is from when travelling on September 15th 2001.

Airport was in a state of absolute pandemonium but I managed to get on a flight to Dallas, where I was detained for over 3 hours by Immigration. It was a literal cliché of “good cop” “bad cop” held in a windowless room with no air conditioning and

“Our records show that you have NOT left the country?”
“Yet here I am“
Cause? The green visa waiver slips you hand in on departure from the US had not been recorded from a previous visit.
--
“We have two immigration files in the database?”
“Yet there is just one of me”
Cause? I had signed a green visa waiver form on a previous visit using my full middle name as opposed to a shortened version of it.

Bunch of Sticklers!
 
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