Those from the UK who were confined to barracks last year and unable to go to LegalTech may be glad of a reminder that one must now apply in advance under the Visa Waiver Program via ESTA, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization.

The link above is direct to the official site – there are several sites which look “official” but which offer a service whose value is hard to discern. If you have internet access you can complete the form yourself, and if you do not you won’t see the sites anyway.

You need your pasport details, which is a good opportunity to check that you can find your passport and that it is in date (I once discovered both those things to be false a few days before a holiday and had to trail twice down to somewhere in Wales to remedy that). You also need to say where you are staying and to give your flight number. Lastly, you must answer all the questions which appear on the green entry form. That, you would hope, would let you off having to restate all the information in paper form, but the green forms were still required last year – something to do whilst standing in line at immigration.

The new body scanners are due to come into use this week. Whatever you may think about them (and I am all for making sure that my fellow-travellers are not equipped to blow us all up), it is reasonable to expect additional delays as the new procedures settle down.

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