ESTA is administered by DHS/CBP. If you have a question concerning ESTA, please visit their website for a list of FAQs and contact information. We are unable to answer your inquiry.

The requirement that a traveler be in possession of a valid e-passport applies only to those traveling to the United States visa free under the Visa Waiver Program and not to those holding valid U.S. visas.

If you are in the United Kingdom, you may apply for a visa at the Embassy in London regardless of your nationality or status in the United Kingdom, and regardless of the type of visa for which you are applying. While applicants may schedule their interview at any U.S. Embassy or Consulate, you should be aware that it may be difficult to qualify for a visa outside your place of permanent residence. As we do not pre-adjudicate visa applications, we cannot advise you further.

Please see our Visa pages for further information.

You are required to answer all questions on the DS-160 accurately and completely. You may leave spaces blank when the questions are marked “optional.” You may answer a question with “Does Not Apply,” when that question does not apply to you.

If you need to make changes to the form and you have saved it, you may retrieve it at the State Department’s Consular Electronic Application Center . If you did not save the form, do not know your DS-160 confirmation number, or are unable to retrieve it for any other reason, you are required to complete a new DS-160.

If you complete a new DS-160 you are not required to notify us or amend the information on the appointment booking website. You should submit the new DS-160 confirmation sheet with your visa application.

If you are experiencing technical issues with the form, we recommend that you use recent Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers.

Applicants aged 14 to 79 are required to schedule an appointment and apply for a visa in person. Those under 14 and 80 and over may be eligible to apply for a visa by courier. Please see our Visa webpages for further information. You are required to follow these steps even if you have held a visa in the past.

We do not provide status checks by email. We cannot confirm receipt of any additional documents submitted after the visa interview.

Once the processing of your application has been completed, the Nonimmigrant Visa unit will contact you by email, at the email address provided at the time you scheduled the appointment.

If you are inquiring about a message you a have received when checking the status of your application in CEAC, you should click here for an explanation of that message.

Appointments cannot be scheduled by email. If you require an appointment you are required to visit our contractors website and follow the instructions. You will be offered the first available appointment date. If this does not accommodate travel and you have urgent medical or humanitarian need of travel you should click on the “Request Expedite” link which will appear after an appointment has been scheduled.

If you request an expedited appointment and it is denied, the denial cannot be appealed. You should check the appointment booking website for cancellations.

We recommend that you apply for a visa. We do not pre-adjudicate visa applications and, therefore, cannot advise if your criminal history will have a bearing on your eligibly for a visa. The only way in which you can find out is to apply.

If the passport in which your visa has been endorsed has expired, the visa in the old passport can still be used provided you are traveling for the same purpose as when the visa was issued and you also carry a valid passport of the same nationality. If, however, the passport authority clipped the corners of the passport when canceling it and, in so doing, damaged the visa in any way, that visa is no longer valid and cannot be used for travel to the United States. A change of name will not affect the validity of the visa. We recommend that when traveling, you carry a copy of the document showing the name change.

If you wish to have a visa in your new passport, you are required to apply for the issuance of a new visa by following the instructions on our website. The visa cannot be transferred into your new passport.

Please note that a B-1/B-2 visa that is valid “indefinitely” is no longer valid for travel to the United States. You are required to either travel visa free under the Visa Waiver Program, if qualified, or apply for a new visa.

The information you provide is used solely by the Visa Branch of the U.S. Embassy London. In order to process certain types of requests, we may have to ask for your full name as it appears in your passport and contact information. You may decline to provide such information, but that could inhibit our ability to answer your questions or assist you with your request. Any information provided on our web form is not retained and is used only in order to process your current request or answer your current questions. The Visa Branch works in accordance with Consular Affairs procedures as well as the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and the Privacy Act of 1974.

Emails and Privacy

Email is not secure and any information you provide on this online inquiry form cannot be guaranteed safe from potential loss. If you choose to send us any Personally Identifiable Information in your email enquiry, it will be removed from the email before we send our reply.