Technically a transit counts as having been to the country, so if you plan to visit the US using say an Australian passport with the US VWP, then you should get a visa. But in practical terms, depending on how you booked the trip and how much info Australia is providing the US on your travels, there may have been some possibility that the US either would have no clue or taken no action against you using the VWP due to the undocumented/underdocumented/ignored Iran transit. My advise would be to get the visa ASAP.

thanks for the reply,

I guess I'll start the visa now, If I was to apply for the VWP will it tell me if it hasn't been accepted or would I not know until I arrive in USA. My thought is that if it will tell me I will apply now and if it says not accepted then I'll do the visa.

Even if the ESTA were applied for again and issued, every 24 hours there may be a risk of the ESTA being revoked. It seems as if the review process for each ESTA is no longer done just once; rather it seems that it may be done repeatedly in batch cycles every 24 hours for all ESTAs.

My visits to some "problem" countries pre-dates the cut-off date (by years and on long expired passport) and hence my ESTA was not revoked. However I was sent to secondary which took nearly 5 hours Longer even than the secondary I got when visiting USA shortly after passing through some of the axis of evil countries.

There were plenty of folk being questioned who missed their onward flights, even onward international flights.

Were you in a queue for 4:45 and 0:15 talking to a CBP officer
Or was it you and the CBP officer in a sound-proof room for 5:00?

How do you think they singled you out?

I'm sure well before I arrived they had linked me to previous RTWs that included USA as well as "problem" countries, i.e. matched across passports to several years old PNR data.

Most of the time was spent standing/sitting waiting.

Did they question you about the "evil" country visits? What kind of questions did they ask you in secondary?

I was asked a bunch of questions, not limited to the "problem" countries.

I've just completed my on-line application form a US visa (what a process that is!)

I noticed in passing that Libya, Somalia and Yemen are now 'on the list'
So if you've been to any of those countries since March 1, 2011 then expect to have your ESTA cancelled.
Interestingly - "At this time, the restriction on Visa Waiver Program travel will not apply to dual nationals of these three countries." Unlike dual nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan.
Government announcement here - https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/02/18/...waiver-program

We had a nervous 20 minutes at US immigration yesterday while they decided whether to send us back to the UK as Potentially Suspect People.
Although we had our passports and ESTAs in place and in date and had been into the USA last year on them, a new regulation has been in place since Jan 2016. This states that anyone who has been to Iran in the last 5 years has to have a personal visa issued in their country of origin and their ESTA is not valid, even if legitimately applied for and approved.
Our immigration officer found an Iranian visa in my wife's passport (we had been there on a sightseeing trip) and invoked higher powers. Fortunately our trip was in 2009 so eventually they decided we were OK. But if we had been there after Mar 2011 we would have been on the first plane back home!
No warning from BA or any other source....

So your ESTAs were not invalid.

This has to be one of most stupid things the USG has ever come up with, other than the TSA.

Hear, hear!

Just a data point for you all

I had my interview in Australia for a US Visa on Tuesday. I was asked six questions in total:

1. When do you intend visiting the US next?
2. For what purpose?
3. When did you visit Sudan?
4. For what purpose?
5. How long were you in the country
6. What parts of the country did you visit?

I was told there and then that my application was approved and it would be a 5-year multiple-entry visa. I received my passport back on Friday with the visa in it.

How did they react when you told them you were only there for a few hours to start a round the world ticket and didn't leave the airport?