The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday urged people to be vigilant of Web sites established by third parties that offer application services for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
“There is no reason [for us] to work with a third party to apply for ESTA. Frequently, third parties charge extra fees and sometimes do not have the latest information on the regulations,” AIT spokeswoman Amanda Mansour told a news conference outside the institute’s office on Taipei’s Xinyi Road.
The AIT has announced similar warnings several times, but it would continue to remind people of the problem on platforms such as Facebook, Mansour said.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
“If it is more than US$14, you are probably in the wrong place,” she said, adding that the correct Web site for ESTA application is at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov.
Since the nation’s inclusion in the US’ Visa Waiver Program in October 2012, Taiwanese have been required to apply for an ESTA prior to arrival for a 90-day travel or business visa.
The official ESTA application Web site only charges a fee of US$14, but there have been periodic cases of third-party sites charging fees several times higher to help with the process.
In an opinion piece published by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Monday, Consumers’ Foundation honorary chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) called on the AIT to address the long-standing problem and take action to prevent third parties from taking advantage of the public.
Cheng said he had received a complaint from a Taiwanese who was charged US$89 for an ESTA application by a Web site that looked “almost identical” to the official site, but was run by a private party.
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