ESTA query

[Jean-F]

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”

 

[Jean-F]

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.

 

[Jean-F]

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.

 

[Jean-F]

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.

 

[Jean-F]

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.

 

[Jean-F]

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.

Update;
I submitted a query to CBP, (as my brother-in-law), giving his email address, “was his wife’s ESTA application cool, or no?”
In the meantime, my wife went on the ESTA site, submitting both her brother and sister-in-law’s application numbers, they both came back as Approved.
The next day, she went into her brother’s email account, (he was away for the weekend), there was an email from CBP, saying if you’ve paid for, and submitted an application, then realise that you may have made an error, you must submit a new application, so she’ll tell her sister-in-law on Monday, and it will all start over.
I just have the feeling that someone in TSA will be thinking, “Jeez, this broad really wants to come to the U.S.”

 

[Jean-F]

You have to submit a new one if you make any errors. I made an error on mine last year which was approved but just did a new one with the right info. Had no problems at immigration.

Thanks Joey, thank Christ I have a multiple entry visa in my passport.

 

[Jean-F]

Sorry to rehash this, but my wife, in possession of her brother’s wife’s passport, credit card, and all necessary bits and pieces, went online today to re-apply for her sister-in-law’s ESTA.
I was filling in the form, she was reading out what I asked for.
When it came to SIL’s parents, I knew their names, and put in Father, Bill Bloggs, Mother Jean Bloggs.
Sharp intake of breath from my wife, and curse word description of me.
“What?” I said.
“SIL’s mum’s maiden name was Jones, not Bloggs”, she said.
“Were Bill and Jean married when SIL was born?”, “Yes, they were.”
“Then SIL’s mother’s family’s name was Bloggs.”
“When I applied for mine, I put my mum’s maiden name as her family name, and mine was approved”, she said.
Oh, FFS! I give up, please God it all works out, or somehow it’ll be down to me.