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?

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.

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

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.