Esta Required If Have Visa?

[Madivad]

If someone has a visa for the USA, do they need to do the ESTA stuff? As someone from a visa waiver country if I want to go I have to do this everytime I want to go, but if my wife gets a 10 year multientry visa, does she also still need to do this everytime she wants to go there or is it only those on the program?

[KamnanT]

Only travellers arriving in the US under the Visa Waiver Program are required to obtain authorization under ESTA. Visa nationals, nationals of visa waiver countries who have a visa and visa exempt nationals (e.g. Canadian citizens) are not required to complete the ESTA process. ESTA is essentially a search to determine if the applicant is on one of a number of US government blacklists and visa applicants are subjected to this search at the time of their visa application.

[Madivad]

Thanks for that. I'm really trying to work out the concept behind this "program". What I can't get my head around is that visa waiver exists fimor a reason, some countries Re believe to have citizens from a class more acceptable and therefore don't require a visa. But they must do this ESTA when they want to go there -- I believe it's more about the criminal record check, I think!

But someone who has a criminal record or is from a country that isn't listed as a visa waiver country, that person can apply once for a visa which can last up to 10 years. In the mean time doing all sorts of badness.

I've been to the website but I still fail to see how this ESTA requirement makes the system better.

/confused

[NanLaew]

As the Kamnan pointed out, the ESTA supposedly enables US immigration to further check on persons who qualify for visa-free entry. US visa applications are much more thoroughly investigated than ever before with the applicant attending an interview. The visa-free traveler never needed to go to a Consulate and be interviewed so in the post 9-11 world, this was seen as a weakness, particularly with the propensity for 'home grown' radicals from European countries.

It's basically a patch on an initially flawed immigration procedure that has already been compromised.