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All passengers who fly to the US, even if they are only in transit (changing planes) must apply for an online ESTA (Electronic Travel Authorisation System) visa before travel. Previously, the visa was free of charge but a couple of days ago a charge for the visa was introduced. There are a lot of websites out there offering visa services and they will charge you the cost of the visa plus an admin charge, so typically they are not good value. The official website is https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov and this is the best port of call to avoid any unnecessary fees.

You also might find the following information useful:

Passports must be valid for 90 days from date of entry to or transit in the US. ALL passengers must have a machine-readable passport. If your British passport is machine-readable it will have at the foot of the personal information page (at the back of the passport) two lines of text as letters, numbers and chevrons (>>>). If there are no lines of text, the passport is not machine-readable and you need a visa. Avoid locking your suitcases if you are transiting via the states - their customs officials retain the right to break into them.

See my colleague Claire's guide to transitting Miami Airport. Not for the faint-hearted!

 

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  • Paul Winrow Giffin
    Paul Winrow-Giffin - Travel Expert

    After graduating in Computer Science, Paul spent seven months travelling from Colombia to Argentina and came home hooked on Latin America.

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    Alex Walker - Travel Expert

    A globetrotter since her childhood, Alex spent a year studying abroad in Guadalajara and has returned to Latin America countless times since then.

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    Charlotte Daubeney - Travel Expert

    Charlotte's fascination with Latin America began with a family holiday to Belize. She went on to study Spanish in school and at university before spending a year living in Santiago, Chile.

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    Hannah Waterhouse - Travel Expert

    Hannah had an early introduction to Latin America when her family moved to Ecuador and she returned to study in Buenos Aires for a year before backpacking across the continent.

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    Lina Fuller - Travel Expert

    Lina's passion for the continent where she was born really took off when she moved to Córdoba (Argentina) to study, spending the holidays travelling between Argentina and her native Colombia.

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    Maggie Wilson - Travel Expert

    Maggie visited Latin America on her first backpacking trip when she was 19. Since then, she has taken every opportunity to travel, and has managed to explore a lot of the region in subsequent trips.

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