Slovakia joined the Visa Waiver Program in 2008. With a biometric Slovak passport and an approved ESTA you can stay in the United States for up to 90 days, most often after a short hop from Bratislava to Vienna airport.
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
Slovakia's ties to America are older than the republic itself. At the turn of the twentieth century villages across Spiš, Šariš and Zemplín sent a large share of their young people to the steel mills of Pittsburgh and the factories of Cleveland, and plenty of Slovak families still exchange Christmas cards with distant relatives in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Modern travel is more varied. Slovaks go for New York weekends, for Florida sun, for trade shows, and to watch compatriots play in the National Hockey League. Since 2008, when the country was admitted to the Visa Waiver Program, none of this has required a consular visa. An ESTA, obtained online from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, takes its place.
What makes the Slovak experience slightly unusual is geography. There are no long-haul flights from Bratislava, so nearly every journey starts with a coach to Schwechat or a train to Budapest or Prague. The authorisation is checked at whichever airport you board your first flight, which is one more reason to have it settled well ahead.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Any Slovak citizen who intends to enter the United States visa-free needs an ESTA that has already been approved. Airlines will not issue a boarding pass without it, and the first check happens at the start of the itinerary, so a Slovak connecting in Vienna or Frankfurt can be stopped long before reaching the transatlantic gate.
The obligation covers every mode of arrival. Ships docking at American ports and vehicles crossing from Canada or Mexico are included, the latter since 2022. Slovaks working in Canada on temporary permits, a sizeable group, regularly overlook this when planning a drive to Seattle or Buffalo.
A small number of Slovak passport holders are shut out of the scheme. Travel to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen or North Korea at any point since 1 March 2011 is disqualifying, and the same goes for Cuba from 12 January 2021. Dual citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea or Cuba are also excluded and should apply for a visa in Bratislava.
The waiver is for visiting, not for earning. A Slovak au pair, seasonal worker or intern needs the relevant visa, and so does a reporter covering an event for a Slovak outlet. Meetings, conferences, family visits and holidays are squarely within the rules.
Stay & validity
The standard grant is two years of validity with repeated entries, and an individual visit may run to 90 days. Slovak adults carry ten-year passports, which rarely interfere. Children are another matter: under-sixes receive a passport valid for only two years and those aged six to sixteen one valid for five, so a young child's ESTA often expires with the passport well inside the two years.
Days are counted continuously from the date a CBP officer admits you. Popping across to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, or spending a few nights in Tijuana from San Diego, does not open a new period on your return. Slovak travellers combining America with a Caribbean cruise should count the whole trip together.
A waiver stay cannot be lengthened after arrival and cannot be swapped for another immigration category. If you need more than three months, for example to help a daughter with a newborn in New Jersey, apply for a B-2 visa at the embassy before you travel.
Pricing
Live fees for Slovak passport holders, shown all-in — the US government charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Slovakia
Requirements
Everything Slovak 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.
Most Slovak applicants have their decision the same day. The recommended minimum is 72 hours before departure, and because a Slovak itinerary usually opens with a feeder flight or a ground transfer to another country, it is wise to count those 72 hours from the moment you leave home, not from the transatlantic departure.
Booking patterns help. Slovaks often buy tickets from Vienna several months ahead to secure reasonable fares in July and August, and the ESTA can be requested the same evening. Its two-year life means it will usually cover a second visit, perhaps to the same relatives, without further paperwork.
Applicants who are declined should turn to the embassy on Hviezdoslavovo námestie in the old town of Bratislava, where visitor visa interviews take place. The process involves a form, an appointment and a conversation with a consular officer about your plans and your circumstances in Slovakia.
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
No airline flies nonstop between Slovakia and the United States. Bratislava residents rely on Vienna International Airport, roughly an hour away by frequent coach, where Austrian Airlines serves several American cities directly. Travellers from Košice and the east usually connect through Vienna or Warsaw on short feeder flights, or travel overland to Budapest or Kraków, while those in the north-west sometimes prefer Prague.
Best time to go
Letné prázdniny in July and August give Slovak families their main opportunity, and they line up with the height of the American season. Expect full flights out of Vienna and long lines at immigration in New York and Chicago. Late August is marginally calmer, as many American schools have reopened by then.
Jarné prázdniny are spread over three consecutive weeks from mid-February to early March, with each group of regions taking a different week. Whichever one is yours, it is an excellent time for Florida: warm, dry and well before the June start of hurricane season.
Hockey followers plan differently. The NHL regular season runs from October to April, and a trip built around games in New York, Boston or Chicago fits neatly into the short autumn break at the end of October or a few days of leave in March. Winter weather can disrupt flights in the Northeast, so avoid tight connections.
Bratislava is six hours ahead of New York and nine ahead of Los Angeles. Morning departures from Vienna arrive on the East Coast in the early afternoon, which leaves time to clear immigration and reach a hotel before fatigue sets in.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Slovakia — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The check takes place where the journey begins. A Slovak with an unresolved application can be refused at the desk in Košice or Vienna, hours before the long-haul leg, so the approval must be in hand before the first departure.
Ľubomír Šťastný has to be entered in plain letters. Rely on the machine-readable zone of the passport, which shows precisely how the name is stored on the chip, and resist the urge to improvise a transliteration.
A two-year passport for a small child means a two-year ESTA at the very most, and usually less. Parents who obtained authorisations for the whole family on one occasion are often surprised when the youngest needs a new one first.
Slovaks living temporarily in Toronto or Vancouver sometimes assume a land crossing is informal. It has required an approved authorisation since 2022, and arriving at the booth without one can spoil a weekend.
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
ESTA applications never pass through the embassy in Bratislava, and its staff cannot check or speed one up. Slovak citizens contact it only for visa services, such as after a declined ESTA or when the trip involves employment, study or a long stay.
FAQs
The questions Slovak passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United States.
No. Slovak citizens can visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program, provided they hold an approved ESTA. It covers tourism, business visits, medical treatment and transit. Employment, academic study and longer stays need a visa.
No, there are no nonstop flights from Slovakia. Nearly all Slovaks depart from Vienna, about an hour from Bratislava, or connect through hubs such as Frankfurt, Munich, Warsaw or Amsterdam. Your ESTA must be approved before the first leg.
Leave the diacritics out and copy the spelling from the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the passport's data page. A name such as Kováčová is entered there in plain capitals, and the application should match.
Up to 90 days per visit. The limit includes any time spent in Canada, Mexico or nearby Caribbean islands in the course of the same trip, and it cannot be extended once you are in the country.
Yes. Infants need their own passport and their own ESTA. Slovak passports for children under six are valid for two years, so check the date carefully and expect to reapply sooner than you will for yourself.
Give Slovakia as your country of citizenship and passport, because eligibility follows nationality. Your Czech address goes in the residence section. Both countries belong to the Visa Waiver Program, but the form must reflect the passport you will travel on.
No. Au pair placements run under an exchange visa with a designated sponsor. Entering on a waiver to do childcare in return for board or pay is not allowed, and stating that intention at the border is likely to end in refusal.
As early as you reasonably can, and no later than 72 hours before you set off. Many Slovak travellers apply on the day they book, since an approval remains usable for future trips while it and the passport are valid.
Your nationality is already set to Slovakia. 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.
