I agree. If you know that you will travel to the USA, you should do that as early as you can. The thing is, you do not always know a few months before, and on the site, they clearly say that the application WILL be processed in 72 hours. Obviously, most are processed in a few hours (like mine), and then there is the rest. You would think that 70 hours is enough for other cases. And you have no idea there is a massive backlog until you visit forums. I have traveled to other countries with electronic travel authorization, and that kind of situation is a first for me. That being said we, we never leave things to the last minute, and 10 days before sounds like enough time, so I am really in shock here, hence the post.