Brunei has belonged to the Visa Waiver Program since 1993, the first country in Southeast Asia to join. Bruneian citizens with an e-passport and an approved ESTA can stay in the United States for up to 90 days per visit.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ESTA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
72 hours
Apply at least this far ahead
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Brunei Darussalam was designated into the Visa Waiver Program in 1993, years before any of its neighbours and long before the online authorisation existed. For a country of under half a million people it is a notable privilege, and it means a Bruneian citizen can plan a visit to the United States without the interview that most of the region still faces.
The journeys themselves tend to be purposeful. Bruneians travel to see sons and daughters on government scholarships at American universities, to attend energy-sector meetings in Houston, for specialist medical opinions, and for long family holidays that take in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando and New York in a single circuit. Because the trip is long and involves at least one connection, people usually stay for several weeks.
What the waiver requires in return is an approved Electronic System for Travel Authorization before the first flight. Royal Brunei Airlines does not fly to America, so the check is carried out by the connecting airline, often at the departure gate in Bandar Seri Begawan when a through ticket is issued, and otherwise at the transfer desk in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul or London.
At a glance
Eligibility
Bruneian citizens need an ESTA for every visa-free visit to the United States, whatever the reason: a holiday, a family visit, a conference, medical treatment or an onward connection. The form is completed online and assessed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. No appointment at the embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan is involved, and nothing is placed in the passport.
Citizenship is the dividing line, and in Brunei that needs saying plainly. A substantial number of long-settled permanent residents are not citizens and travel on an International Certificate of Identity. That document is not a national passport of a programme country, so its holder cannot use the waiver and should apply to the embassy for a visa instead.
The same applies to the many foreign nationals working in the sultanate. A Malaysian, Filipino, Indonesian or Indian resident applies according to their own passport, and for those nationalities that means a visa. A British or Australian expatriate in the oil and gas sector, by contrast, uses the waiver through their own country's membership.
Two further groups are excluded. Anyone who has been in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan or North Korea since 1 March 2011, or in Cuba since 12 January 2021, is ineligible; this can catch Bruneians who have worked on overseas energy projects or travelled with humanitarian missions. Dual nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea or Cuba are also outside the programme.
Stay & validity
The authorisation ordinarily remains valid for two years, with any number of visits of up to 90 days each. Bruneian passports are typically issued for five years, so there is a real chance that the passport ends before the ESTA would have done. Look at the expiry date first: with less than two years remaining, the approval will simply stop on the day the passport does.
Ninety days is generous for a holiday but tight for some of the reasons Bruneians travel. A parent accompanying a relative through a course of medical treatment, or staying on with a student through a full semester, can run past three months without intending to. Under the waiver there is no application to extend and no way to change category from inside the country.
Because flights home route through Asia or Europe, most itineraries do not involve Canada or Mexico. If yours does, perhaps Niagara Falls from the Canadian side or a cruise from Miami into the Caribbean, those days sit inside the same 90 and do not pause the clock.
Pricing
Live fees for Brunei passport holders, shown all-in — the US government charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Brunei
Requirements
Everything Brunei passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
A biometric e-passport from a Visa Waiver Program country, carrying the chip symbol on its cover
A valid email address, which is where the decision is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the government ESTA charge and our service fee together
Your home address, phone number and an emergency contact
Employer details and, if you have them, the address of where you are staying in the United States
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, your contact and employment information, and answer the eligibility questions. Most applicants finish in about fifteen minutes.
Our team checks your passport number, name spelling, dates and declarations against CBP requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the government charge paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is nothing to stick in your passport. The authorisation is held electronically against your passport number, and the airline verifies it when you check in.
A typical application from Brunei is resolved within hours, though the guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to allow a minimum of 72 hours because some are set aside for extra checks. Brunei is twelve hours ahead of Washington in summer and thirteen in winter, and the working week is arranged differently, with Friday and Sunday as the usual days off, so do not expect to resolve a problem over a weekend.
The year-end school holiday, beginning in late November, is when most family trips are taken, with a second peak around the Hari Raya break. Long-haul seats out of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur sell out early for those dates. Applying as soon as the itinerary is fixed means that a pending status or a mistyped passport number is found weeks ahead and not at a transfer desk.
Should the application be refused, the alternative is a visitor visa through the embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan. Its consular section is small and interview slots are limited, so a refusal discovered a few days before departure almost always means postponing the trip. That is the strongest argument for dealing with the authorisation first and the hotel bookings afterwards.
On arrival
An approved ESTA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Visa Waiver travellers are seen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the first American airport they land at, even when connecting onward. The officer takes a photograph and, for most adults, fingerprints.
There is no paper form to fill in on the aircraft. Your arrival record, the I-94, is created digitally and shows the date by which you must leave. You can look it up online afterwards.
Expect to be asked where you are staying, for how long and what you do for a living. A return ticket and the address of your first night are usually all it takes.
Queues at the busiest gateways can run past an hour at peak arrival times. If you are connecting to a domestic flight, leave a generous margin, since you also reclaim and recheck your bags.
Getting there
There are no nonstop flights between Brunei and the United States, so every journey involves at least one change of aircraft. The usual pattern is a short flight from Bandar Seri Begawan to a major Asian hub and a long sector across the Pacific, though some travellers prefer to go west through London or the Gulf, particularly for the East Coast.
Best time to go
Coming from a climate that is hot and humid all year, Bruneians feel the American seasons keenly. The long school holiday in December drops visitors into the northern winter, which is perfect for seeing snow for the first time in Colorado or upstate New York and for mild days in California, Arizona and Florida, but requires proper winter clothing that is hard to buy at home.
Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri move earlier by about eleven days each year, and many families prefer not to be away during the fasting month. Those who do travel will find halal restaurants and mosques easily in New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and the Detroit area, though far less so in rural areas and around the national parks.
For sightseeing, late April to early June and September to October are the most comfortable periods across the country. American schools are in session, queues at Orlando and Anaheim are shorter, and the heat in Las Vegas and the desert parks has either not arrived or has eased. Florida and the Gulf coast see hurricanes between June and November, with the greatest risk late in the summer.
Whichever route you choose, the journey takes the better part of a day and crosses twelve or more time zones. Building in a night in Singapore, Tokyo or London on the way breaks the trip and makes the first days in America more useful. When two tickets are booked separately, leave a wide margin at the hub, since a missed connection on separate bookings is not protected.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Brunei — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Permanent residents of Brunei who are not citizens sometimes assume that long residence qualifies them. It does not. The waiver is limited to citizens holding the national e-passport, and an application made on an International Certificate of Identity cannot succeed. The embassy visa route is the only option.
A name such as MOHAMMAD AMIN BIN HAJI ABDULLAH does not divide neatly into first name and surname, and applicants guess. The safest guide is the bottom two lines of the photo page, where the passport office has already separated the primary and secondary parts. Our review checks your entry against those lines.
Because the first flight is only to Singapore, Tokyo or Seoul, some travellers believe the authorisation can wait until the stopover. When bags and boarding passes are issued through to the final destination, the check happens in Bandar Seri Begawan, and the whole journey can be refused at the first counter.
Scholarship students and relatives receiving treatment often need family nearby for longer than planned. The waiver gives 90 days and cannot be lengthened, so a companion who expects to remain for a term or for a full course of treatment should hold a visitor visa before departure.
Travel to a restricted country
Anyone who has been in Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen on or after 1 March 2011, or in Cuba on or after 12 January 2021, is generally not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program and needs a visa instead.
A previous visa refusal or overstay
An earlier refusal of a US visa, a denied entry or a past overstay must be declared. Each one commonly leads to an ESTA being refused and the traveller being directed to apply for a visa.
Passport details that do not match
A single wrong character in the passport number, or an expiry date typed in the wrong order, produces an authorisation the airline cannot find at check-in.
Conditions
These conditions are set under the Visa Waiver Program and do not vary by nationality. The 90-day limit and the passport-linking rule catch out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held electronically against the passport number you enter. If you renew or replace that passport, change your name or change citizenship, the ESTA no longer applies and you need a new one.
Every person travelling under the Visa Waiver Program needs their own ESTA, including babies and children, each linked to that traveller's own e-passport.
An approved ESTA generally lasts two years from the date of authorisation, or until the passport it is linked to expires, whichever comes first.
Within its validity you can make repeated trips. Each stay can be up to 90 days, and time spent in Canada, Mexico or the nearby Caribbean islands during a trip counts towards those 90 days.
A Visa Waiver stay cannot be extended and cannot be converted into another immigration status from inside the United States. Anyone who needs longer must apply for a visa before travelling.
An ESTA lets you board a carrier bound for the United States. Admission is decided by a CBP officer at the port of entry, who can ask about your plans, your funds and your ties to home.
Consular services
The American embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan is the only United States mission in Brunei. It has no role in ESTA applications, which are made and decided online. Its consular section is where Bruneian students, long-stay visitors, certificate of identity holders and anyone refused under the waiver apply for a visa in person.
FAQs
The questions Brunei passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United States.
No, Bruneian citizens do not need a visa for visits of up to 90 days, because Brunei has been a Visa Waiver Program country since 1993. They do need an approved ESTA before travelling. A visa becomes necessary for study, employment, stays of more than 90 days, or when a traveller is not eligible for the waiver.
No. The Visa Waiver Program is open to citizens of member countries travelling on a national e-passport. A permanent resident who holds an International Certificate of Identity is not travelling on a Bruneian citizen's passport and must apply for a visa at the embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan.
No. Every routing involves a connection, most often in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong or London. The ESTA is verified by the airline that carries you into the United States, and when you are ticketed through from Brunei that check is normally made before the first flight leaves.
Follow the machine-readable zone on your passport's photo page. The part of the name before the double chevron is treated as the family name and the remainder as the given names. Keep BIN or BINTI where the passport shows it, and do not add titles that are not part of the printed name.
Up to 90 days on each visit. The authorisation generally lasts two years, though with a five-year Brunei passport it will end sooner if the passport expires first. You can make several trips while it is valid, and any days spent in Canada, Mexico or the nearby Caribbean during a trip are included.
Yes. A family visit is a standard tourist purpose, and parents and siblings who are Bruneian citizens can travel on an ESTA for up to 90 days. The scholarship student holds a student visa of their own. Relatives intending to remain for a whole semester should consider a visitor visa.
Yes, medical treatment is one of the purposes the waiver allows. The limit is time: treatment and recovery must fit within 90 days, as the stay cannot be extended. Where a hospital expects a longer programme of care, the patient and any companion should apply for visas before leaving Brunei.
As soon as flights are booked, and at the very least 72 hours before departure. December is the peak travel period for Bruneian families and connecting flights are full, so there is little room to rebook if an application is pending or refused. An early approval remains usable for two years.
Your nationality is already set to Brunei. Complete the form in about fifteen minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches CBP.
Other nationalities
Routes, passport rules and the practical details differ by country. Here are the guides for other Visa Waiver Program nationalities.
