It seems some (most?) people traveling to GDC from abroad haven’t actually heard about ESTA, or Electronic System for Travel Authorization. It’s a new system where people travelling to US need to register on the web as incoming visitors prior to travel. There’s some scaremongering on the site that if you don’t do this 72 hours before flying in, it cannot be guaranteed that you’ll be let onto the plane.

So, if you haven’t already done it, go sign up for ESTA right now. Have your passport handy, you’ll need your passport number and issuance dates.

And even though this effectively duplicates one of the paper forms you’ve filled on the plane in the past, you still need to fill it in, even with this system in place. Getting into US is starting to be an interesting challenge! I wonder what’s the next change. :)