To determine your eligibility for the ESTA document, you first need to know the conditions required to apply online.
This involves answering questions that will enable the U.S. authorities to draw up a profile of you and determine whether you could pose a danger to other passengers or to U.S. homeland security.
Once you’ve submitted your ESTA form, the ESTA website or the official U.S. government website may inform you that your request has been put on hold.
What does a pending ESTA application mean?
We answer that question in this article.  

ESTA application pending

If you meet all the criteria required by the American authorities, don’t worry about your ESTA application being put on hold.
If you are a national of one of the countries participating in the exemption program, have a valid passport (e-passport or biometric passport) and are visiting the USA for tourism, business or transit purposes for up to 90 days, there should be no obstacle to your application.
A pending application simply means that the US authorities have received numerous requests, which may slow down the process, or that your application needs to be analyzed in more detail.
However, if you are a visa-exempt individual, you will usually receive a reply within 72 hours of submitting your application.  

How can I use ESTA to travel to the USA?

After submitting your ESTA application on a private website or on the U.S. government website, the most common response you may receive is that your authorization has been granted.
Receipt of a positive authorization allows you to organize your trip to the United States immediately.
Your Temporary Resident Permit will be valid for two years (the duration of the document’s validity), which means that during this period you can travel to the USA with your electronic or biometric passport, a round-trip ticket and your ESTA authorization, directly linked to your passport number.
This means you can make several trips with your authorization.
However, your trip must never exceed 90 days on American soil.
You should also check the validity of your passport, because if it expires before your ESTA, you’ll need to apply for a new one on one of the many sites offering the service, for your future trip to the USA.  

What can I do if my ESTA application is rejected?

This situation is rare, but there are several reasons why an ESTA application may be refused.
This depends on criteria that only the U.S. Immigration Service and the Department of Homeland Security can determine.
For this reason, you may be notified that your ESTA application has been denied.
When this happens, it may be due to a typing error on the online form.
In this case, you can renew your application 10 days after the first request.
On the other hand, if the refusal is not due to a typing error on your part, it probably means that you are not eligible for ESTA permission, and unfortunately a U.S. visa application is required.
In fact, if you want to travel to the USA to work and live the American dream, or to do an internship in the USA, ESTA is not the authorization you need.
You can’t apply for a USA visa online like you can for an ESTA; you have to go to the American embassy.
At the U.S. embassy, an officer will advise you on the type of visa you are eligible for, and decide whether or not it will be issued.
Applying for a visa is the only solution left for your stay in the USA if you are refused the second time around.