Struggling to upload photo of passport to esta

[walttynutcade]

Any advice how to upload passport photo to USA ESTA application, is it because I am using iPad ?

Are you on the genuine site?

I don't think I've ever had to upload a photo.

Apparently it changed November 2022, positive I am on correct site but will check , thankyou

you do need to upload passport picture now

I completed an ESTA application last month and it didn't need a passport picture, did need passport number, issue and expiry date though.

I did mine last week- I struggled taking a photo, ended up taking it on my phone and emailing it to myself to do on my laptop. You need to have quite bright light to pick up all the detail, it took a few goes to get one the Esta site was happy with.

I did it a couple of months back and it was a struggle to get a pic the system was happy with. Definitely changed since last time I applied for Estas a few years ago. I had to do 4 and it took probably a couple of hours 😣

Is it simply that the photo you have taken is too large to be uploaded - lets say it is 4000 x 3000 pixels - it could be easily be a 4-5Mb file and there may be a limit on how large a photo can be. Try resizing the photo down to 1024 or 2048 wide.

I had an issue with this a few weeks ago. I left it overnight snd the next day it worked fine. It also wouldn't take my payment initially. Might have just been an overloaded network. Got the approval within the hour.

Thank you for all the advice in the end I was that frustrated I decided to leave it and I will go back to it over the weekend. Thinking about it it could well have been the light and size of photo , I will take on board all the tips 😀

Do you need to have an actual trip booked to apply for an ESTA or can you do it anytime? I might have to travel at short notice and it sounds like the process is faffier than it used to be...should I apply now?

Yes you can apply anytime, I have a current ESTA that expires in early January however as we have a son in USA and will be going out early next year I always like one , you don't have to have travel plans ,I haven't gone back to it yet but will do over the weekend.

I couldn’t do mine on my iPhone - I had to take a photo, email it and do it on a computer

Sorted🎉🎉
Took photo of passport on phone emailed to myself , completed application on laptop, no problem I am not technical but believe it is to do with type of photo used by Apple and computer converts to jpeg

Thanks! So there's no issue with saying you'll be staying somewhere random, and then ending up staying somewhere different when you do eventually book? It's a bit odd they ask for the address when you haven't got an actual trip booked yet.

Actually, while it does last 2 years, it does expire if you don’t travel on it. I applied in March last year and then couldn’t fly due to illness. I got a warning in October that it would expire in 30 days if not used. So ~six months.

I had no issues applying for a new one in due course but did have to pay again which I thought was a bit cheeky.

I agree there is nothing on the website to suggest this is the case but it did happen and was not related to passport expiration etc. I’m a frequent traveller to the US - apart from Covid era - so do know my way round the process.

I could have tried to find out why but these was no obvious route for questions and trip was cancelled so I just got a new one in due course.

it was probably ~7 months total (got a 30 day expiration warning at about 6m). Not saying it would happen to others but thought it was worth mentioning.