US TRAVEL:FROM JANUARY 12TH, 2009, Irish cruise passengers departing from, visiting or disembarking at a US port must have the same pre-clearance as visitors travelling by air.
Travellers entering the US with passports from Visa Waiver Programme countries - such as Ireland - will be required to obtain travel authorisation in advance. To do this, they simply need to log on to the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) web site. They must do this before they travel, and answer some straightforward questions.
The new system is nothing to worry about. For many years, people who have travelled to the US have been asked to fill in a form during the flight or at US immigration in Dublin or Shannon airport. The online ESTA system asks for the same information, just in advance of the trip.
The vast majority of applications from Visa Waiver Countries are approved instantly, with less than half of 1 per cent of applicants turned down for one reason or another. If travellers finds themselves in this category, they will need to apply for visas, and this does take time.
The cruise specialists at John Galligan Travel recommend that clients apply for ESTA, even if they are not sure they will be going to the US this year. Once their ESTA is approved it will be valid for two years or until their passport expires, allowing passengers to travel back and forth to the US freely.
Getting a travel authorisation using the ESTA website is free.
However, online companies have sprung up offering to process requests for travel authorisation for a fee, in some cases up to $50, says John Galligan: "This is an attempt to 'mug' travellers online, who may not be aware that the process costs nothing."
• The ESTA website is operated by the Department of Homeland Security and is available at
http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/ id_visa/esta/ or via the John Galligan Travel website, www.jgt.ie