Citizens of the Principality have been part of the Visa Waiver Program since 1991 and travel to the United States with an ESTA, normally via Zurich. The nearest American embassy is in Bern, which is a good reason to apply early.
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
With around forty thousand inhabitants, Liechtenstein sends only a few thousand travellers to the United States each year, but those who go tend to go properly. The Principality is one of the most industrialised and prosperous places on earth, its companies have American subsidiaries from Texas to New York State, and its residents share the Swiss and Austrian taste for long, carefully planned road trips through the West.
Liechtenstein was designated for the Visa Waiver Program in 1991, in the same year as Austria. Its citizens may visit the United States without a visa on the strength of an approved ESTA, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection links to the passport issued by the Ausländer- und Passamt in Vaduz. With no airport in the country, the check takes place at Zurich or wherever your journey begins.
Most guidance online is written for bigger countries, and the details peculiar to Liechtenstein get lost. This page deals with them: choosing the correct country on the form when so much of daily life is shared with Switzerland, what to do if you live in Schaan on a Swiss or Austrian passport, and where to turn if an application is refused, given that there is no American embassy in Vaduz.
At a glance
Eligibility
Liechtenstein citizens need an ESTA for visa-free entry to the United States. The rule is the same for a flight from Zurich to Miami, a cruise ending in New York or a border crossing by car from Canada, and it applies to tourism, business visits, medical treatment and transit.
Roughly a third of the people living in Liechtenstein are foreign nationals, mostly Swiss, Austrian, German and Italian. Each of them applies under their own country's membership of the programme, using their own passport, and a Liechtenstein residence permit plays no part. Within one family in Triesen or Eschen it is quite normal for the parents to apply as citizens of two different countries.
The identity card issued in Vaduz is valid for travel around Europe only. For the United States you need the biometric passport, and so does every child. Liechtenstein's rules on naturalisation mean that relatively few citizens hold a second nationality, but any who are also nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea or Cuba fall outside the waiver.
The waiver is for visits. An engineer from Schaan attending meetings at an American subsidiary is within it; the same engineer taking up a posting on the American payroll is not, and needs a work visa. Study for credit and work as a correspondent for foreign media are also excluded.
Stay & validity
The authorisation generally lasts two years from approval, allows multiple entries and caps each visit at 90 days. It ends early if the passport expires first. Look at the expiry date printed in your Liechtenstein passport before applying, and renew in Vaduz beforehand if the remaining time is short.
Because the population is small, passports here are renewed in person and without much waiting, and it is tempting to do so just before a major journey. Remember the order: a new passport carries a new number, and the old ESTA does not follow it. Collect the new passport first, then submit the application.
Visits may not be prolonged beyond 90 days, and there is no switching to another status from inside the United States. Excursions into Canada or Mexico or to nearby Caribbean islands during the trip are counted as part of the same stay. Someone planning several months with relatives, or a long sabbatical, should apply for a visitor visa through Bern.
Pricing
Live fees for Liechtenstein passport holders, shown all-in — the US government charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Liechtenstein
Requirements
Everything Liechtenstein 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.
An application from Liechtenstein passes through the same automated checks as one from a country a thousand times larger, and most are answered within hours. CBP's advice to apply at least 72 hours ahead holds, since pending cases do occur and cannot be chased.
Distance from the fallback is the real argument for applying early. If the ESTA is refused, the visa interview is at the American embassy in Bern, more than two hours away by car or train, and appointments must be booked in advance. A refusal a week before departure usually means a postponed trip; a refusal two months before leaves options.
Timing tends to follow the school calendar, which resembles that of the neighbouring Swiss cantons: a week of Sportferien around Fasnacht, six weeks in summer from early July, and two weeks in October. Applications for the whole family are best submitted together, as soon as flights from Zurich are confirmed.
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
Liechtenstein has no airport and no passenger flights of its own. Almost everyone leaves from Zurich, about an hour and a quarter by car from Vaduz, or by bus to Sargans or Buchs and then by train to the airport. Zurich offers nonstop flights to both American coasts. Munich, around three hours away, is the main alternative, and the small airports at Altenrhein and Friedrichshafen handle a few European feeder flights.
Best time to go
Liechtenstein's national day falls on 15 August, in the last days of the school summer holiday, and many families time their return from America to be home for the fireworks above Vaduz Castle. July and early August are high season in the United States, so expect company in the national parks and book accommodation near them months ahead.
The two-week autumn holiday in October is often the better choice. The deserts of Utah and Arizona are warm instead of scorching, the aspens in Colorado have turned, and the East Coast is in full colour. For people raised between the Rhine and the Alps, the sheer emptiness of the Southwest at that time of year is the main attraction.
Winter visitors usually head for sunshine. Florida between December and April is dry and mild and safely outside the June-to-November hurricane season, and Hawaii is a long way off but reachable with one change in California. The Sportferien week is short for either, so some families add days of leave to make the distance worthwhile.
Clocks in Vaduz run six hours ahead of New York and nine ahead of the Pacific coast, the same as in Zurich. With the road or rail transfer to the airport, a journey to the East Coast takes around fourteen hours from front door to hotel, and to California closer to eighteen. A night near the airport before an early departure is a common precaution in winter, when snow can slow the motorway.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Liechtenstein — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Liechtensteiners pay in francs, post letters through the Swiss system and fly from a Swiss airport, and drop-down lists often push them towards Switzerland. On the ESTA, citizenship and issuing country must both read Liechtenstein. An application filed under the wrong country will not correspond to the passport scanned at Zurich.
The mirror-image error is made by Swiss, Austrian and German nationals who live in the Principality. They enter Liechtenstein as their nationality because it is home. Citizenship must be that of the passport in hand, with the Liechtenstein address given only in the residence and contact sections.
A trip to the passport office in Vaduz shortly before departure replaces the passport number that the ESTA depends on. The authorisation cannot be carried over. If the passport is due for renewal within the next year or so, obtain the new one first and apply once it is in your hands.
Staff of Liechtenstein's industrial firms regularly visit American sites for meetings and conferences, which is permitted. Being assigned to work at the American company for months, paid locally, is employment and is not. The dividing line matters at the border, where a CBP officer will ask what you are going to do.
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
There is no American embassy or consulate in Liechtenstein; the US ambassador in Bern is also accredited to Vaduz, and consular matters are handled in the Swiss capital. For an ESTA this makes no practical difference, because the whole process is online. It matters only when a visa is needed, in which case the interview takes place in Bern.
FAQs
The questions Liechtenstein passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United States.
No, citizens of Liechtenstein can visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, as long as they hold an approved ESTA. The Principality has been a Visa Waiver Program member since 1991. The ESTA is obtained online and verified by the airline when you check in at Zurich or elsewhere.
No. Liechtenstein is covered by the United States Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. You do not need to go there for an ESTA, which is entirely electronic. Only applicants who require a visa, for example after a refusal or for employment, have to attend an appointment in Bern.
Select Liechtenstein if you hold a Liechtenstein passport. The country of citizenship and the passport-issuing country must match your passport, regardless of the Swiss franc, the Swiss postal system or a departure from Zurich. Use the +423 dialling code for your phone number as well.
Apply as an Austrian citizen, using your Austrian passport details, and enter your Liechtenstein address as your place of residence. Austria is a Visa Waiver Program country in its own right. The same principle applies to Swiss, German and Italian nationals living in the Principality.
Nearly always Zurich, which is roughly 115 kilometres from Vaduz and has nonstop flights to New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and other cities. It can be reached by car or by bus and train via Sargans or Buchs. Munich is a secondary option for some routes.
Up to 90 days on each visit under the Visa Waiver Program. The ESTA that permits this usually remains valid for two years, unless your passport expires sooner, and can be used for several trips. Longer stays require a visa issued by the embassy in Bern before you travel.
Yes, for business visits such as meetings, conferences and negotiations. An ESTA does not allow you to take up employment with the American entity or to be paid by it. If your assignment amounts to working in the United States, your employer needs to arrange the appropriate work visa.
Yes. Each child, including a baby, must have a personal ESTA connected to their own biometric passport. A child cannot travel on a parent's authorisation or on an identity card. Check the child's passport expiry date first, as the ESTA will not last beyond it.
Your nationality is already set to Liechtenstein. 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.
