Questions and Answers

Hi all,
Due to an urgent business meeting I’m traveling from MAD-LIM this Sunday. Since there was no availability on IB I’ve had to end up routing via MIA on AA. Here’s the thing: I haven’t travelled to the US for 20+ years so I don’t have a visa of any sort. Is a transit visa required in the US (or MIA) or some sort of official document for transiting through a US airport? I hold EU passports (spanish and german) if that’s of any help

Thanks in advance!

Hi Ben,

With both your Spanish and German passport, you are allowed visa free entry into the USA for a maximum stay of 90 days. So your itinerary (MAD-MIA-LIM) will not require a transit visa for the USA.

While you won’t need a visa, you will need an esta authorization: [URL]http://www.esta.us/application.html[/URL]

Thanks for that [USER=3494]@Andy 11235[/USER], I’ll apply for that immediately. Even though I’m past the recommended 72hrs window, do you think I can get an assurance that I’ll be able to have the ESTA prior to my Sunday departure?

In my experience it has never taken 72 hours (usually within a few hours, once it took a full 24 hours). I’ve seen check-in agents direct people who didn’t fill it out to make a submission over airport wifi, so I get the sense that to the airline the confirmation of submission is most important. However, particularly with the current President, there are no assurances.

Alright, thanks for the heads up! You have saved me from the potential trouble of filling it in the airport