Starting next summer, Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis, among others, will be able to use the egates at passport control the same way British citizens and EU members do now.
I've been doing this for a couple of years thanks to Registered Traveler, and it takes only a few minutes to clear passport control.
Thanks for the heads-up on this.
I don't suppose there's much hope for a reciprocal arrangement such as dropping the requirement for an ESTA?
As I understood the announcements at Sea-Tac airport recently, travelers using their ESTA for the second time or later also go through the electronic passport control when entering the USA.
That’s a pity!! I was rather hoping with Brexit that we would be stopping Europeans using this channel, to speed it up for us Brits, not opening it up to all and sundry!
As I understood the announcements at Sea-Tac airport recently, travelers using their ESTA for the second time or later also go through the electronic passport control when entering the USA.
But as an ESTA authorisation only lasts two years an annual traveller to the US will only benefit from that once before having to renew their ESTA. Not quite the same as breezing through UK immigration any time you visit.
I've not tried entering via the electronic gates in the US as we typically have our children with us so I have no direct experience of how easy this is on a second visit within the eligible timeframe.
We used these epassport gates both at LHR T5 and Venice Marco Polo fifteen days ago with American passports. It was a breeze.
But as an ESTA authorisation only lasts two years an annual traveller
to the US will only benefit from that once before having to renew
their ESTA. Not quite the same as breezing through UK immigration any
time you visit.I've not tried entering via the electronic gates in the US as we
typically have our children with us so I have no direct experience of
how easy this is on a second visit within the eligible timeframe.
It's my understanding that as long as you have entered the US one time with an ESTA on a VWP-eligible passport since 2008, you are eligible to use the APC kiosks for every subsequent visit on that passport (and it might even be the case that you can continue to use the APC kiosks when you replace your passport after its expiration, but this seems to vary by airport -- the worst-case scenario is that you have to be processed manually once with your new passport, then you can go back to using the APC kiosks for the life of that new passport).
In other words, you don't have to have entered with the same ESTA -- you just have to have entered with an ESTA.
Incidentally, the United Kingdom also restricts use of its e-passport gates to those who are 18 are older, so American travelers with minor children would also be ineligible to use the e-gates.
I've understood it as Andrewesque just explained it -- and in April, my (Italian) husband and I indeed entered JFK this way -- he had entered the U.S. previously on a (now-expired) ESTA, and was now entering it on a new ESTA. But since he had previously entered on ANY ESTA, he was able to do the kiosk with me. I was very pleasantly surprised!!
