United States Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)

Whether the traveler is completing the application themselves or a third-party representative (e.g. travel agent, relative, friend) is completing it on the traveler's behalf. ESTA was designed to allow a representative to submit for someone without computer or internet access; the traveler remains responsible for the answers submitted either way.

Required acknowledgment checkbox when applicantRole is 'representative': the representative must check the box on the application indicating they completed it on the traveler's behalf.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Auto-populated from a scan/photo of the passport biographic data page or the passport's Machine-Readable Zone, editable if optical character recognition misreads it.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Full date, YYYY-MM-DD.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Reflects the passport's own sex marker, captured from the passport scan/Machine-Readable Zone. The enumeration mirrors ICAO 9303 machine-readable-passport sex-marker values (M, F, or X); it was not independently re-confirmed against the live ESTA form's own field, since that form was not directly reachable (see VERIFICATION.md).

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. Must be a country currently designated as a Visa Waiver Program participant; the VWP country list is set by the Secretary of Homeland Security and changes over time (additions and removals), so it is intentionally not enumerated here as a fixed validation list — consult the current list at travel.state.gov or cbp.gov before relying on it.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. As shown on the biographic data page / Machine-Readable Zone of an e-Passport (a passport with an embedded electronic chip) issued by a Visa Waiver Program country.

Full date, YYYY-MM-DD. An ESTA authorization is valid only through the passport's expiration date if that is sooner than the normal two-year validity.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. A photo or scan of the passport's biographic data page (the page bearing the applicant's photo, name, and Machine-Readable Zone), captured or uploaded during the application. The website flow previews the image and the biographic data it auto-populated so the applicant can correct any OCR misread before continuing.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. A live photo of the applicant's face, compared 1:1 against the passport photograph by CBP's Traveler Verification Service to confirm the applicant is the passport holder. Required on both the ESTA website and the ESTA mobile app as of the 2024 enhancement described in PIA-007(j). When a representative submits on the applicant's behalf, the representative must still submit a photo of the applicant, not of themselves.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Should be the traveler's own email address. If the traveler has no email address, an alternative third-party point-of-contact email address (e.g. a family member, friend, or business associate) must be provided instead.

Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. In international E.164 format, e.g. +12025551234.

Name and address of the applicant's current or, if not currently employed, most recent previous employer. DHS builds in flexibility for applicants who cannot readily supply every mandatory detail (e.g. answering 'unknown' where genuinely not known); the live form's exact sub-field breakdown (e.g. whether employer name, address, and phone are separate inputs) was not independently confirmed, since the application itself was not directly reachable — see VERIFICATION.md.

Address of the first place the applicant intends to stay in the United States.

Name of a point of contact in the United States. DHS allows an applicant with no U.S. point of contact to answer 'unknown' rather than leaving the mandatory field blank.

Address and/or phone number for the U.S. point of contact named above, when available.

Name of an emergency point of contact, distinct from the U.S. point of contact above.

In international E.164 format, e.g. +12025551234.

Voluntary. An application is not blocked from submission by leaving this and socialMediaIdentifier blank, and CBP may still check publicly available social media regardless. The live form may accept more than one platform/handle pair; this flat field models one representative pair pending an accepted repeating-value mechanism (GSP-0009).

Voluntary. See socialMediaPlatform.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions. Covers specified communicable diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, cholera) and physical/mental disorders or substance abuse/addiction that may pose a public-health or safety concern.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions. The Visa Waiver Program covers business and tourism only, not employment.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions. Any overstay, even by one day, is disclosable here.

One of the nine Visa Waiver Program eligibility questions. A 'yes' generally makes the traveler ineligible for the Visa Waiver Program (a visa must be obtained through the normal consular process instead), subject to limited exceptions the live form's guidance may describe.

ESTA application fees are collected through the U.S. government's Pay.gov service.

Final confirmation step: once payment is validated, the applicant or representative is prompted to submit the application to CBP for automated vetting against security and law enforcement databases.