Visa question of the month - Passport Upload when applying for ESTA

Für ein Jahresabschlussgespräch unserer Unternehmensgruppe wollten wir für unsere Geschäftsführerin eine ESTA-Genehmigung beantragen. Anscheinend muss man neuerdings ein Foto des Reisepasses hochladen? Leider werden die Daten vom Reisepass nicht richtig erkannt. Haben Sie einen Hinweis für uns, was man hier machen kann?

Our answer:

Already a few months ago on the official site to the ESTA application introduced a request for a passport photo for a short time in order to automatically transfer the customer data in the passport to the online form. Due to technical problems, the upload option was removed from the site after a few days. Since November, ESTA applicants are now again and immediately advised in the first step to upload a photo of the passport. The system then reads the data from the scan and automatically enters it into the online questionnaire. You will then be asked to check the data read in there, add to it if necessary, and then confirm it step by step.

We recommend for the Upload steps to take a high-resolution photo of the passport already before the application, if possible without light spots or shadows on the document.
If you have a camera connected or are submitting the ESTA application via a laptop or the smartphone, you can also try holding the passport into the camera. The US system detects if there is camera access and instructs exactly how to hold the passport into the lens. In particular, the machine-readable line must be clearly visible.

Unfortunately, technical transmission errors persist. I.e., the system often transfers the information incorrectly into the online mask, even with very high-resolution and good passport uploads.

We strongly recommend that you check the Filling out the ESTA authorization once again check all transferred data from the passport for accuracy. A subsequent correction is of course possible in the form:

1) Exhibiting country

The country of issue is the country of your citizenship as indicated on the passport, regardless of the country in which the passport was actually issued. For a complete listing, see this list of the Country codes.

2) Family name

Enter your family name as it appears on your passport.

3) First name

Enter your first name as it appears on the machine-readable line of your passport.

4) Passport number

The passport number may contain numbers and/or letters. Please distinguish exactly between these two. German passports have a 9-digit passport number (top right). Some commonly confused characters are the number zero (0) and the letter "O" and the number one (1) and the letter "I".

So in your passport, the digit in question will always be the number zero, never the letter "O"; and always the number one, never an "I".

5) Country of citizenship

Indicate your country of citizenship as it appears in the machine-readable zone of your passport. A complete list of the Country codes can be found in this list.

6) Date of birth

Enter your date of birth as it appears on your passport.

7) Gender

Enter your gender with f (female) for female or m (male) for male as indicated in the machine-readable zone of your passport.

8) Validity date

Enter the date of issue and expiration shown on the passport.

Personal identification number (if applicable)

Enter the personal identification number as it appears in the machine-readable zone of your passport (if applicable). German passports do not list a personal ID number. You may enter either your ID number or UNKNOWN in the "Personal Identification Number" field on the ESTA form.

The system automatically prompts you to confirm all master data again. So make sure carefully that all information is correct. Also note that a subsequent change of the passport information after sending the ESTA application or after successful approval is no longer possible. You would then have to submit a new application to make it correct.

In case of further technical problems we can recommend the service of our partner ESTA-ONLINE who will compare the data entered with your passport photo and complete it. If there are any irregularities or errors, you will receive a message from customer service to adjust the entries.