Planning a trip abroad, whether to the USA or elsewhere, requires a certain budget. In addition to the cost of a biometric passport, plane ticket, accommodation, food and activities, travel to the USA requires a travel authorization application. This may be a USA visa or an ESTA authorization. French nationals are exempt from US visa requirements for certain stays in the USA, but are still required to obtain an ESTA prior to departure.
Here we look at the cost of an ESTA and a U.S. visa to determine which will be most advantageous for your trip to the United States.
Esta price
The cost of ESTA authorization
Summary :
When ESTA was first introduced, it was free. Not so today. That said, ESTA is still very affordable. The U.S. government has decided to charge $41 for each ESTA application: $4 for the application fee and $17 for the authorization fee. This price breakdown means that a refused ESTA will only cost $4. It should be noted that part of the revenue generated by ESTA applications is used to promote US tourism.
Payment for ESTA requires a credit card or PayPal account, as ESTA is an online application. To apply for ESTA, you need to fill in an ESTA application form, which can be found on the U.S. government’s official ESTA website. The application form is only processed once payment has been made.
We would like to point out that the ESTA is valid for two years and authorizes multiple trips to the USA during its validity. There are several qualifications to this information. The first is that the validity of the ESTA may be less if the passport used has an expiry date earlier than the two years mentioned. In other words, the validity of the passport determines the validity of the ESTA. This leads to our second nuance, which is the need to reapply for an ESTA if the passport changes (new passport). The final nuance concerns the type of stay authorized by the ESTA. Under the Visa Waiver Program rules governing ESTA, the stay in the USA must be a tourist or business trip of 90 days or less by air or sea, by a traveler from a Visa Waiver Program signatory country.
The ESTA has a fixed cost, whether you are applying for the first time, renewing your application or reapplying after being refused due to a typing error on the online form. However, you may be asked to pay a higher fee if you apply on a private site. It’s not the price of the ESTA that changes, but the cost of additional services that is added. These may include data verification, personalized assistance, setting up a customer account, and so on.
The cost of a USA visa
If you don’t qualify for ESTA, or your trip doesn’t lend itself to it, you’ll need to apply for a visa from the consular services of the U.S. embassy. The type of visa will depend on the nature of your stay in the USA: a non-immigrant visa for a temporary stay, and an immigrant visa, better known as a green card, for expatriation to the USA.
The cost of an American visa for a temporary stay is a minimum of $185, as for a tourist, student or internship visa, and a maximum of $265 for a K-1 visa allowing you to travel to the USA to marry your American spouse, for example. Applying for a visa involves compiling an application file and presenting it to a consular officer at the U.S. embassy.
The price of a green card is even higher, at a minimum of $535, and is a real obstacle course. The application must come from an American sponsor, unless you’re trying your luck with the green card lottery. The permanent resident card allows you to immigrate legally to the USA, and therefore offers you the opportunity to work in the USA.
