Are you planning to travel to the United States anytime soon? One of the first things you need to take care of is the travel document that allows you to cross its borders. That is why you should read about the USA visa conditions and eligibility. After all, there are about 185 types of visas, and each of them is created for a particular category of travelers.
What interests you is that visas are categorized in immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. You need to see which one you qualify for. The latter is for people who wish to travel to the United States for short-term stays, such as tourism, business, and medical care. In that case, you can either apply for a B1 visa or B2 visa. The former is meant for people who travel for business purposes, while the latter is for tourism and medical purposes.
The nonimmigrant US visas can be obtained at the nearest US diplomatic mission. You need to make inquiries about what you need in order to apply, and you must, of course, submit a visa application. While you can find a ton of information online, we recommend that you give the embassy a call before heading down there. That is because the info you find online is not always the most reliable, and you do not want to end up at the embassy short of what you need to submit your application. A diplomatic mission will always be the most reliable source of information.
The Visa Waiver Program
A quick look over the US visa policy reveals that there 38 countries that are a part of something that is called the Visa Waiver program. As a result, their citizens can travel to the US with nothing else but a passport and an ESTA. What is ESTA? It stands for Electronic System for Travel Authorization. It is not a visa, but more of a formality that lets the US Department of Homeland Security that you plan to travel to the US. Lucky for you, if you are eligible, you can apply online for an ESTA, and Aid-Air can help you with the online application process.
To find out if you are eligible for a US ESTA, you can use Aid-Air’s Visa Checker if you do not feel like reading the visa policy of the US. Just insert your country of origin in the left drag-down menu and put USA in the right menu. The result will let you know if an ESTA is all that you need.
To obtain an ESTA, you need the following:
Passport – you must hold a valid electronic passport with a digital chip that contains your bio-metric info. At the same time, the passport needs to be valid for at least another 6 months from the date of arrival in the United States.
E-mail address – the US ESTA arrives via e-mail, which is why you must have a valid e-mail address to which you have access. Once Aid-Air sends you the ESTA, do not forget to print out at least one physical copy of the document.
Means of payment – the payment must be made during the online application process, which is why you must have a method of online payment. Aid-Air accepts credit and debit cards, but you can also use PayPal, Alipay, or WeChat; whichever you find most convenient.
You must also submit an online application form, but that is easy to complete. Not to mention that you can get your US ESTA in as little as 6 hours.
This topic is far more extensive than this article depicts. However, reading about USA visa conditions and eligibility is important before you start to plan your trip to the US. Nevertheless, we hope that the information above at least puts you on the right path. For more questions, you can contact Aid-Air’s support service. It is available 24/7, and it is entirely free of charge.