UKC

Planning on going out to the States from the 14th August for a month to Rocky Mountain. Anyone know what the crack with the whole visa application thing, whether you need one and how long the process takes? Just been looking it up on the net and it seems fairly epic. cheers

In reply to nofearnolimits: If you have a UK passport you can fill a form in on the plane and stay for up to 6 months.

In reply to nofearnolimits:

You don't need a visa for the US..they give you 2formsto fill out whilst on the plane its a green card a white card asks for basic details ie, passport number, address of first night, if you have criminal convictions etc and thats it you hand it to the immigration officer at passport control he asks you a few questions, takes your photo and fingerprint and thats it your in. I've been the US 3 times so far this year and have not needed to apply for any visa.

In reply to Anonymous:

They give you 2 months on arrival. The customs guy actually wrote 'Downtown' on my form when i told him i didnt know which backpackers i was going to!!!!!!

In reply to Anonymous:

Forgot to say the above is for UK passport holders.

In reply to andy: Actually I think it's 3 months - just checked my passport and I have a stamp that says I could have stayed til August from this week.

In reply to andy: Nice one cheers for that. Just wasnt too sure so thought id take the easy option insteed of reading loads of the net : )

In reply to chris fox:

I thought it was 3?? but as the OP is only going for a month and assuming they hold a valid UK passport they should have very little trouble entering the US.

To be honest from my experience you can write what you like for the first nights address they don't check. The most common questions seem to be based around the reason for the trip and if you work.

In reply to nofearnolimits:

Your UK passport must be a machine readable one - the one with the long string of numbers and >>>>>>> at the bottom of the back page

In reply to nniff: Must it? They don't say anything about that one the plane when they're handing the cards out - just that you need to fill in a couple of cards. They take your fingerprints and take your picture in that cheery way US Immigration do when you arrive.

In reply to nofearnolimits:

I had to get up at an ungodly hour on Thursday in order to go to the US embassy in London and get a j-1 visa. Took hours filling in the forms beforehand, mainly because Im crap at filling in forms and kept making mistakes and having to do it again :-s

In reply to nofearnolimits: depends on how much moral terpitude you've been up to

In reply to Paul Atkinson: Maybe he's a commie.