Electronic System for Travel Authorization
An ESTA is checked by the airline at the gate. Without an approved one you are not carried, so this is a before-you-travel task rather than a border one.
The fee is adjusted for inflation every year by law, which means the figure below has a shelf life and will move again around 1 January 2027.
Every field below traces to a government page, read on 14 August 2026.
These are blank on purpose. A blank field is something no government source states — and it is exactly the field invented elsewhere.
No official processing time is published for this scheme.
Figures that circulate widely and are not supported by the official pages.
Newest first. Every entry links the government page it came from.
Three months after the jump to $40, an inflation adjustment took it to $40.27. The odd cents are correct — the law doesn't round. Because the adjustment is annual and mandatory, expect another change around 1 January 2027. A denied application still costs $10.27.
The increase implemented a provision of the July 2025 budget act. It held for three months before the inflation adjustment superseded it — which is why $40 is still quoted so widely and is no longer right.
The budget act created a “visa integrity fee” for nonimmigrant visa holders. More than a year on, no implementing rule has been published and the State Department's fee page doesn't mention it. The $250 is a statutory minimum rather than a price, and the “refundable” description is generous: reimbursement would be discretionary, only after the visa expires, and no mechanism exists.