US business trip checklist: what belongs in your suitcase

A business trip to the USA rarely fails because of one big mistake. It fails because of an expired passport, a return flight that ends in Toronto, a sentence at the counter that sounds like work, or an invitation letter that promises more than the trip is allowed to deliver. This checklist walks through the trip in the order you experience it: before booking, when applying, when packing, at the border, during your stay and afterwards.

1Before booking: does your trip fit the ESTA?

The first question is not which documents you need, but whether your trip counts as a business trip under the Visa Waiver Program. With an ESTA you enter as a visitor, for no more than 90 days, for business or pleasure. Meetings, negotiations, trade fairs, conferences and board meetings are covered. Productive work, pay from a US source and setting up a US branch are not. The exact line, with all the typical cases, is in ESTA for business trips. If you are going to install or service machinery or train staff, read B-1 for installation, service and training first.

Next, check the formal requirements:

• Your own electronic passport. Every traveler, including every child, needs their own e-passport. A temporary or emergency passport is not enough.
• No more than 90 days. Plan the trip so it stays comfortably below that.
• Return or onward flight. The ticket must not end in Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean unless you live there.
• Scheduled flight or cruise ship. You must arrive with a carrier that participates in the program. On a private plane or yacht, you need a visa.
• No grounds for exclusion. If you have been to Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen since March 1, 2011, or also hold Iranian, Iraqi, North Korean, Sudanese or Syrian citizenship, you need a visa. The same applies after a visit to Cuba since January 12, 2021. There are narrow exceptions for official travel on behalf of your own government or military.
• No previous violation. If you broke the program's conditions on an earlier entry, for example by overstaying the 90 days, you cannot use it again.

If any of these points doesn't apply to you, you need a visa. For business travel that is usually the B-1 or the combined B-1/B-2. You apply with Form DS-160 and an appointment at the consulate. As a general rule, you book the appointment in the country where you live or whose citizenship you hold. The application fee for the visitor visa is $185.

For a visa, an in-person interview is the norm. You can skip it only when renewing a fully valid B-1, B-2 or B-1/B-2 visa within twelve months of its expiry, if you were at least 18 when it was previously issued, you apply in your country of citizenship or residence, you have never been refused, and no ground for exclusion is apparent. Even then, the consulate may ask for an interview. So allow plenty of lead time.

2Applying for the ESTA

Apply for the ESTA on the official CBP website. Plenty of private sites submit the same application for a markup. CBP states explicitly that these sites are not affiliated with the government and speed nothing up. The official fee is $40.62: $10.62 for processing, which you always pay, and $30 added only if you are approved. If your application is denied, you pay just the $10.62. The background on the fee is in Forty dollars for an ESTA.

CBP names the timing itself: ideally when you book the trip, or as soon as you start planning it. If the system can't decide right away, the status shows Authorization Pending; according to CBP that is not a negative sign, but it costs time. If the ESTA is denied, you need a visa, and the State Department cannot guarantee next-day appointments. Apply just two days before an important negotiation and you put the negotiation at risk.

Have these ready for the application:

• your passport and details of any other passports and citizenships,
• your parents' names, your place of birth and an email address you will need to confirm,
• your current or previous employer with address (CBP uses this as evidence that you don't intend to immigrate),
• your address and a point of contact in the USA, plus an emergency contact,
• details of your social media accounts, which have their own section on the form,
• a credit card or another accepted form of payment.

The authorization is valid for two years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first, and allows multiple entries. You need a new application if you get a new passport, change your name, acquire another citizenship or the answer to any of the yes/no questions changes. If the ESTA expires during your stay, that's fine: it only has to be valid on arrival. A printout isn't required, because the airline checks the status electronically; CBP still recommends keeping a note of your application number.

3Documents for the trip

Only a few documents are mandatory: passport, ESTA or visa, and the return ticket. Everything else is supporting evidence. That evidence still matters, for a simple reason: the law puts the burden of proof on you. Under INA 291, anyone applying for a visa or seeking entry must prove they meet the requirements. And INA 214(b) presumes every visitor intends to immigrate until they convince the officer otherwise. A schedule, an invitation and a letter from your employer spare you from having to make that case in words alone.

Put the documents in a folder in your carry-on, not in your checked bag. Add digital copies, but don't rely on your phone alone. The table below shows what belongs in it.

4The invitation letter

There is no official form for the invitation letter and no rule that requires one. It is supporting evidence in which your US partner confirms why you are coming. A good letter is short, on the inviting company's letterhead and signed by someone who can stand behind the invitation. It should cover six things:

1. Who is invited: your name, your role and your employer abroad.
2. Why: the business purpose in one sentence, such as negotiating a supply contract, attending a trade fair or a board meeting.
3. When and where: the dates of the meetings and the addresses, ideally with a short agenda.
4. Who pays: that your employer pays you and the inviting company at most reimburses travel and accommodation costs. Nothing more should appear there, because visitors may not receive pay from a US source.
5. How long: a fixed end date for the trip that matches your return flight.
6. Contact: name, phone number and email of your contact person in the US.

Watch the wording. A sentence like "Mr. Müller will support our team for three weeks with the software rollout" describes work, however friendly it is meant. "Mr. Müller will attend meetings about the software rollout" describes a meeting. Don't let the letter sound better than the trip really is. If the purpose actually is work, no letter will help; only the right status will.

It is also worth bringing a short confirmation from your employer at home: that you are employed there, are paid from there, are traveling on their behalf and will return to your job afterwards. If you run your own business, an extract from your company register or a confirmation from your accountant serves the same purpose.

5At the border

When you arrive, you go through primary inspection. There the officer checks your identity, your nationality and whether you may enter. The questions are short: why are you coming, how long are you staying, where are you staying, who do you work for. Answer briefly, truthfully and consistently with what your ESTA and your documents say. If you have business meetings, say so, state the purpose and show your schedule if asked. If you are unsure whether part of your trip is still allowed, sort that out before you fly, not at the counter.

If the officer has doubts, you are sent to secondary inspection. That is not a verdict, but it takes time. Electronic devices can also be searched there. In fiscal year 2025, CBP searched the devices of 55,318 travelers, around 0.47 percent of secondary inspections and less than 0.01 percent of all arriving international travelers; in 92 percent of those cases it was a basic search with no equipment attached. Rare, then, but possible. If your laptop holds documents that look like a work assignment, you should know why you have them with you. What happens if you are refused entry and how to handle it is covered in Why Europeans are refused entry at the US border.

Two more points belong to the border. You must declare cash and other monetary instruments totaling more than $10,000 when entering and leaving, which you can also do electronically via FinCEN Form 105. And you no longer get your arrival record, the I-94, on paper. After entry you can retrieve it on CBP's I-94 website or in the CBP Link app. Check that the date and status are correct before you leave the airport.

6During your stay

The 90 days start when you enter and keep running if you travel to Canada, Mexico or a Caribbean island in between. When you come back from there, you are only admitted for the remainder of the original 90 days. There is no extension under ESTA, and no change to another status. Only if an emergency prevents you from leaving can the authorities grant a period of up to 30 days. Overstay, and you lose the program for future trips.

Stick to the purpose you entered with. Three days of negotiations can easily turn into two weeks of pitching in at the client's because someone is out. That is exactly the moment a business trip becomes work. If the purpose changes, talk to your employer and, if needed, to us before you start.

When you leave by air or sea, your departure is recorded electronically through the carrier's passenger data. You don't need to hand anything in. If you received a paper form at a land border, hand it in when you leave.

7Social security and tax on business trips

For a pure business trip with meetings, this rarely matters. As soon as you actually work in the US for your employer, for example on an installation, a project or extended on-site client support, it does. You then need to clarify two questions before you leave.

8After the trip

Keep your documents: invitation, schedule, tickets and your employer's confirmation. On your next application, in secondary inspection or on a visa application a few years from now, someone will ask what you did on earlier trips. If you can prove it, you don't have to reconstruct anything from memory. CBP's I-94 website shows your entries and departures; it pays to check after every trip so that no error stays in your history.

Also check when your ESTA and your passport expire. CBP sends a reminder to the email address in your application when your ESTA expires within the next 30 days. It cannot be renewed; you simply submit a new application.

And if after your third or fourth trip you notice your stays getting longer and your tasks in the US getting bigger, take that seriously. A status that fits your plans is almost always cheaper than being refused entry. The overview ESTA and B-1 visa shows the options, and for entrepreneurs building their own US presence, there is the L-1 visa and the E-2 investor visa.

In short

• Before booking, check whether your trip fits the Visa Waiver Program: e-passport, return ticket, no grounds for ineligibility, purpose business and not work.
• Apply for your ESTA only on CBP's official website, ideally as soon as your trip is confirmed.
• An invitation letter, a schedule and a confirmation from your employer are not required, but they are the evidence that shows at the border that you are a visitor.
• The 90 days keep running during side trips to Canada or Mexico, and if you will work on site, sort out social security and payroll tax before you leave.

How we help you

• Visa and Green Card ConsultationWhich route to the USA fits you, settled in one conversation.
• Visa RoadmapIn writing: which visa fits you and your family, prepared with the immigration attorney on the firm's team.
• US market entrySubsidiary, staff, taxes: your start in the US market.
• PayrollPayroll, payroll taxes and filings for your employees in the USA.