Want to continue travelling to the USA without a visa?

Do you have a red, machine-readable passport issued before 26 October 2005 or after 16 June 2006?

• If so, you do not require a visa for entry to the USA. Important: Your passport must be valid for at least the duration of your planned stay.
• From 12 January onwards, you can register online to continue travelling to the USA without a visa! You will need to register online to enter the country. With the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation – or ESTA for short – you can do this in a few easy steps.

We recommend our passengers to register at least 72 hours before departure in order to receive authorisation from the authorities in time. We also advise all those travelling to the USA to carry a printout of this authorisation with them when travelling. Online registration will temporarily replace the I-94W form, which passengers have been required to complete on board the aircraft until now. If you travel to the USA regularly, then this form must be updated every time you enter the United States.

To go straight to ESTA registration, click here

To read more about ESTA, click here

Airlines are also legally obliged to transfer details of all passengers on flights to the US to the US authorities with the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS):

The following details are required to do this:

• Passport data
• Country of main domicile
• Complete first address during stay in the USA, including street name and street number, town/city, state in the USA and zip code

With Austrian Web Check-in, you can enter the APIS data required for your next flight to the USA online. And you can print out your boarding pass there and then!

Click here to go to Austrian Web Check-in

This makes your journey preparation simpler than ever, and helps you spend less time at the airport! Passengers who have a permanent green card for the USA and transit passengers are not subject to this rule.

A visa is required for the following:

• Holders of red passports issued or extended between 26 October 2005 and 15 June 2006.
• Holders of green (old) passports.
• Children travelling on a parent's passport.
• All travel other than for tourism or private business purposes (e.g. journalistic activities, study, training, research, exchange programmes, lecturing, employment, au-pair work, marriage, etc.).
• Passengers without an ESTA registration