As everyone knows, the Department of Homeland Security now asks everybody who wants to visit the USA (for less than 90 days) to fill out an application form prior to the start of the journey. You can fill out this form directly on the site https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html.
This is what Homeland Security says:
"All passengers traveling under the Visa Waiver Program are required to have an approved travel authorization prior to traveling to the United States by air or sea. Even non-ticketed infants are required to have an approved travel authorization, if they do not have a visa for travel to the United States. An application may be submitted by a third party on behalf of a Visa Waiver Program traveler. "
"The Department of Homeland Security and the United States Customs and Border Protection have provided a secure public Web site with an automated form for you, or a third party, to complete in order to apply for a travel authorization. Once you enter the required biographic and travel information on the secure Web site, your application is processed by the system to determine if you are eligible to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program without a visa. The system will provide you with an automated response, and prior to boarding, a carrier will electronically verify with the United States Customs and Border Protection that you have an approved travel authorization on file."
NOW, HERE'S THE TROUBLE:
In Germany, we either have the old passports, or - as everyone knows - the new passports wich are called the Biometrics. In the old passports, the passport numbers were made up by numbers only, whereas the new passports have passport numbers made out of numbers and letters! CAREFUL: The 0 (zero) looks EXACTLY like the O (oh). You cannot see the difference. The German government and the US government know of the problem. Still, when you type the wrong one into your ESTA-form, you will have huge trouble at immigrations in the US!!!
SOLUTION:
Even though the passport numbers are now made of numbers and letters, certain letters are NEVER part of this. One of these letters that will NEVER appear is the "O" (oh). So don't ever type the O (oh) as part of your passport number, and you will have no trouble at immigrations (which really nobody wants
!)(The article I found about this is here: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/gadgets/ ... 33,00.html)
