Do's, don'ts, and grey areas at the US border.

An ESTA compliance guide for founders, sales leads, technical teams, and operators.

Border scrutiny is at an all-time high. ICE detentions are up 25 percent since early 2025. Arrests of non-criminal immigrants are up 807 percent. Officers are running social media checks, asking for full trip itineraries, and pulling people into secondary lines for answers that used to take 30 seconds.

One careless answer at the airport can revoke your ESTA permanently and force every future trip through a formal visa. This guide draws the line between permitted business activity and unauthorized employment, in the words officers actually use, with the phrasing the Foreign Affairs Manual rewards and the startup jargon that gets you flagged.

Who it's for

• Founders raising in the US, hiring early team, or setting up an entity.
• Sales leads running roadshows, conferences, or customer meetings.
• Engineers traveling for integrations, onboarding, or technical reviews.
• Operations leaders standing up the US office.

What's inside

1. The six categories of business activity the FAM explicitly opens, and how to stay inside them.
2. The do-not-say list, including the startup phrases that read as employment ("close sales", "implement", "sales sprint").
3. A border interview script with the exact language to use at the primary line and in secondary.
4. Role-specific guidelines for founders, sales and marketing, technical teams, and operations leaders.
5. The narrow equipment installation exception, and why "implementation" work does not qualify.
6. Grey areas explained: remote work for a foreign employer, accelerator participation, unpaid help on your own startup.
7. The 2026 enforcement climate, what to expect at the airport, and the 10-minute pre-trip audit Concord runs with every client.
8. When ESTA stops fitting, and which visa to graduate to (B-1, E-2, L-1, O-1).