At YWAM Utah Campus, we would like to make traveling to your DTS as simple as possible. I am from Europe myself and as I did my DTS in America, I have used my own experience to try to make things as easy as possible. Here are some things to think off.

Buying a plane ticket: Though the DTS fees cover a lot, they do not cover your travel to and from the DTS. That said, if you work with us to buy your plane ticket, you could get up to 80% of your ticket deducted on your outreach fees. For this to be the case you have to communicate with us before buying your plane ticket to come to the USA. In addition, here are some things to think of:

  • As a European student, you can visit America for 90 days (approximately 12 weeks) without needing a visa. Unless you want to spent part of your summer traveling around the USA before the DTS starts, this means that you will not need an American visa for coming to your DTS. You do need a passport and if you don’t own a passport when you apply for your DTS, we encourage you to start you passport application as soon as possible after being accepted to your DTS. You will also need to apply for ESTA. For more information on ESTA click here. Applying for ESTA is relatively easy and it doesn’t take very long. Your ESTA will be good for two years and allows you to travel into the United States for up to 90 days at a time. Do make sure that your return ticket doesn’t span more than 90 days if you are traveling to the USA without a visa. If this isn’t the case, you will probably not be accepted into the country. ALSO make sure that you do have a return ticket showing that you will exit the country within 90 days.
  • The reason we can offer you a deduction on your outreach fees if you buy your ticket in communication with us, is because our outreach will be in Europe. Your return ticket will therefore cover a significant amount of your outreach fees. How much we can deduct depends partly on the country you will be traveling to and from.
  • If you are planning to come on staff with YWAM Utah Campus, you could consider applying for a tourist visa for your DTS. This will still only allow you into the USA for 6 months at a time, but it is longer than 3 months. If you would like to do this, we can work with you. You can also decide to do this after you have finished your DTS. You will not be able to apply for a religious worker visa until two full years after having been on staff with a YWAM location.

Traveling home after graduation: After our debrief and graduation time in The Netherlands, you will be responsible for your travel arrangements back to your own country. If you are booking this ticket before the DTS starts, feel free to book your ticket for any date on or after February 25th.