It's finally the last day of 2016! Are you all excited?
But is it just me? or that it does not feel like end of the year this time...π
Well, before even starting to feel the holiday mood, my boss just messaged me to go on trip to NY on 2nd of Jan, 2017.
Thank you for letting me know so in advance.
I told him I'm not sure if my visa will be issued before I leave, especially when everyone should be on holiday and he was like, oh you can easily apply for ESTA for US visa.
Oh, thanks again for being so nice about it...π’
Anyhow, that is the short story version of how I ended up applying for ESTA visa just 3 days before I leave. And I wanted to share the key points to remember when applying for ESTA for people like me.
(Especially for Koreans)
First thing you need, is Electronic Passport! (unfortunately, if you don't have electronic passport, you will not be able to apply for ESTA through online)
And then search for ESTA on Naver which will show you the link like below.
If you enter the website through Naver, the default language setting should be Korean.
I recommend you proceed the process with language selection as Korean first.
Website has such a detailed explanation on every single input you need to enter.
But if your language is English, it might confuse you a little bit.
(if you are not Korean, please select the language of your preference)
Very important to thing to remember, tho, is that
All information you put in should be in ENGLISH!!
Just because the explanation was in your mother language, if you enter information in your own language... you have to start from the beginning. And you don't want that.
When it comes to actually putting the information in, it's not so complicated.
All information should be either on your passport, or the ones you already know.
You just need to put in all the information as ACCURATE as possible.
If you have any info you are confused of, put your mouse on to "?" mark next to the blank.
It will show you as much as information you need for each blank.
Since I was in a special situation where I could not accept any one mistake,
I read all the "?" button next to the blank even though I knew what it was about.
After putting all the information you need, a summary page pops up so that you can review again all the information for the last time. Review for the last time, and enter your passport information for confirming, than Tada! you are DONE!
Next step is paying $14 for the visa.
Your application does not go through unless you pay for it. So please make sure you have the credit card ready with (the one that can be accepted abroad) you before starting.
After paying, you will be able to see the result right away.
One pause here!
When I read other blogger's how to posts, it said they were able to see "Accepted" right away.
So I didn't really expect anything other than that.
But!!! what the..
My status was "permission held off"!!!!!!!
What??? why!!!!!!!!! I was so cautious of information I put in!
I was so frustrated and searched like crazy for the cases like me.
And all I could find was, that you will get your reply within 72 hours.π©
No.. Even 24 hours is not enough for me!
And then, found a case that says, when he re-logged in after 10 min, the status were changed to "Accepted".
So I tried! with my last hope!! and YAY!!! saw "Accepted" on my screen!!!~~~~~ππ
Actual time I spend on putting information in was only about 20 min, but I was soooo stressed out during the process, it felt more like 3 hours.
Now, I really have to go on this trip with no excuse whatsoever.
Hahahahah...
What an amazing way to start 2017! (I'm being a bit sarcastic here.)
Wish all of you the happy new year ! π
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