What to do when ESTA rejects an invalid address?

When an “invalid address” blocks your ESTA

• Before you get your ESTA authorization, the electronic travel authorization required to enter the United States, you may run into this common problem: you’ve entered your home address correctly, but the form tells you the address is invalid. You can’t move forward.
• I’ve encountered this bug myself, and it’s quite frustrating. You start checking every letter and word, try again several times, but the form stays stuck.

How to fix it

What can you do to move forward and get your ESTA? Here are several things to know:

• First, remember that accents don’t exist in English. Remove any accents from your address—for example, change “rue du théâtre” to “rue du theatre”. Also remove hyphens from street names like “Avenue des Champs-Élysées”. Essentially, you need to “Americanize” your postal address.
• You may also have trouble with street types that aren’t standard. Words like “allée” (alley), “impasse” (dead end), or “lieu-dit” (locality name) can cause problems. The fix is simple: replace “18 allée de l’église” with “18 rue de l’eglise”.
• The system appears to use an address directory for each country, and addresses not in the database are automatically rejected. If you live in a new development with recently named streets, you may face this issue. In that case, enter a nearby address instead. If you live at “21 impasse de la falaise” but there’s a “46 rue de la gare” nearby, use that street address.
• One last thing: your postal address actually doesn’t matter for the ESTA process. No one has ever been deported from the United States because their address wasn’t perfectly accurate. If your address is flagged as invalid, it’s just a software glitch you need to work around.