Iceland has been part of the Visa Waiver Program since 1991 and sits closer to America than any other European member. With an Icelandic e-passport and an approved ESTA, Boston is under six hours from Keflavik for stays of up to 90 days.
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
No other European nation lives as close to the United States as Iceland does. Boston is nearer to Reykjavik than Athens is, and Icelandair has built its whole network on that geography. For Icelanders a shopping weekend in Boston, a winter fortnight in Orlando or a concert trip to New York is hardly more exotic than a visit to Copenhagen.
That ease rests on the Visa Waiver Program, which Iceland joined in 1991. Icelandic citizens do not need a visa for a short stay, but they do need an ESTA from U.S. Customs and Border Protection before they travel. It is confirmed at Keflavik before boarding, and because the flight is so short there is no time to sort out a problem once you are at the airport.
Two features of Icelandic life make the application slightly different from anyone else's. Names follow the patronymic system, so members of one family rarely share a last name, and the alphabet includes þ and ð, which no American form can accept. Both are easy to handle once you know where to look in the passport.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. An Icelandic citizen needs an ESTA for every visa-free trip to the United States, whether flying from Keflavik, arriving on a ship or driving across from Canada. Icelanders who connect through an American airport on the way to Mexico or the Caribbean are included, since transit passengers are admitted like any other visitor.
There is no family application. Each traveller, from grandparents to a child in arms, needs a separate authorisation attached to a separate passport. In an Icelandic family that often means four applications with three or four different last names, which is perfectly normal and causes no difficulty.
A small number of Icelanders are excluded from the waiver by where they have been or what other nationality they hold. Presence in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen or North Korea since 1 March 2011, or in Cuba since 12 January 2021, rules it out, as does a second citizenship of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea or Cuba. The affected traveller applies for a visa in Reykjavik instead.
The trip must also be the right kind. Holidays, visits to friends, business meetings and medical appointments are fine. An Icelander taking up paid work, joining a US university for credit or covering a story for Icelandic media needs a visa suited to that purpose.
Stay & validity
An ESTA lasts for two years in the ordinary case and permits unlimited visits of up to 90 days each. Icelandic adults hold ten-year passports, so most receive the full term, which for frequent visitors to Boston or Florida can mean a dozen trips on one approval. Children's passports are issued for five years, and theirs is the date to watch.
If the passport expires sooner than two years from approval, so does the authorisation. A new passport from the sýslumaður, or a change of name registered with Þjóðskrá, means the old ESTA no longer applies and another must be obtained before the next flight.
Icelanders with family among the Western Icelanders of Manitoba often combine Canada and the northern United States in one journey. The days in Canada are added to the days in America for the purpose of the 90-day limit, and the same applies to Mexico and the nearby Caribbean islands. The stay cannot be lengthened from within the country.
Pricing
Live fees for Icelandic passport holders, shown all-in — the US government charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Iceland
Requirements
Everything Icelandic 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.
Icelandic applications are mostly settled within hours. CBP still recommends applying at least 72 hours ahead, and with good reason: Icelanders are known for booking American trips at short notice, and a pending status two days before departure cannot be speeded up.
The simplest habit is to keep an authorisation current if you travel west most years. Because it is valid for repeated visits, a regular visitor to Boston or Orlando can renew when the old one expires and never have to think about it in the week of a trip.
Should the waiver be closed to you, a visitor visa requires an interview at the embassy in Reykjavik. That is at least convenient for most of the population, but appointments are not instant, so establish your eligibility before committing to a departure date.
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
Keflavik is the only international gateway that matters for the United States, and Icelandair flies from it to a long list of American cities on both coasts and in the Midwest. Several US carriers add summer flights. Because nearly every route is nonstop, Icelanders usually clear immigration at their destination and can be at their hotel within an hour or two of landing.
Best time to go
Icelanders do not go to America for the summer; they go to escape the dark. The months from November to March, when Reykjavik has only a few hours of daylight, are when Florida is dry, sunny and free of hurricanes. Orlando and the Gulf coast have long been favourite winter refuges for that reason.
Autumn shopping trips to Boston are a fixture, and October and early November suit them well, with mild weather and the stores stocked for the holidays. The days around Thanksgiving are the busiest of the year in American airports, so a trip a week or two earlier is calmer.
Icelandic schools are out from early June to late August. That overlaps with the American school summer and with the peak months in the national parks. Families heading for Colorado or the Pacific Northwest should book accommodation well ahead; those without children will find May and September easier.
Iceland keeps the same time all year, while the United States moves its clocks. New York is therefore four hours behind Reykjavik in summer and five in winter. It is the mildest jet lag any European faces on an American trip, and afternoon departures from Keflavik arrive in the early evening on the East Coast.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Iceland — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Þórður Guðmundsson cannot be entered as written. The passport's machine-readable lines show the approved plain-letter version of every Icelandic name, and that is the spelling the application has to carry.
Parents filling in several applications in a row sometimes repeat their own patronymic for a child. Jón's daughter is Jónsdóttir and his son Jónsson, and each application must show what is printed in that child's own passport.
Because America is so close, Icelanders book late and apply later. Most are approved at once, but a case that goes to pending within 72 hours of departure can cost the whole trip.
Iceland allows people to adopt a matronymic or alter a given name, and such changes do happen. An ESTA issued under the earlier name, or on the earlier passport, is no longer valid and must be replaced.
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
Iceland's only American diplomatic post is the embassy in Reykjavik, and it has no role in granting an ESTA. Icelanders visit it for visa interviews, which arise only when a trip or a traveller falls outside the waiver.
FAQs
The questions Icelandic passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United States.
No. Icelandic citizens can enter the United States without a visa for up to 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program, on condition that they have an approved ESTA. Work, study for credit, media assignments and longer stays need a visa.
Put it in the surname field, since that is how your passport presents it. Use the spelling from the machine-readable zone, where Icelandic letters have been converted. It does not matter that your relatives have different last names.
Do not type them. Look at the two lines of capitals at the bottom of the passport photo page and copy your name from there. That rendering is the one airlines and border systems read.
Generally two years, or until the passport expires if that is sooner. An adult with a ten-year Icelandic passport will usually enjoy the whole period, while a child's five-year passport may shorten it.
Icelandair flies nonstop from Keflavik to cities including Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle and Orlando, and US airlines add seasonal services. The list changes from year to year, so check before you book.
Yes. Time spent in Canada, Mexico or the adjacent Caribbean islands during the same trip is counted within the 90 days. A visit to relatives in Manitoba does not give you a fresh allowance when you cross back.
They do. Every traveller needs one regardless of age, and it must be linked to the child's individual passport and name, which will normally differ from each parent's.
You can submit an application from anywhere with an internet connection, but doing it at the airport is a gamble. If the answer is not immediate you will not be boarded, and CBP advises at least 72 hours' notice.
Your nationality is already set to Iceland. 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.
