The United States is moving to enforce stricter digital-screening measures for millions of foreign visitors, proposing mandatory disclosure of social-media activity over the past five years for anyone entering under the Visa Waiver Program.
A new public notice from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reveals that the update to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) has been released ahead of its official publication in the Federal Register.
According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the revised ESTA system will require applicants to submit all social-media identifiers used within the last five years — a major shift from the current optional disclosure.
“The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years,” the DHS notice states.
CBP said the move follows Executive Order 14161, issued in January 2025, which directs federal agencies to expand digital-vetting tools to better identify potential security risks. Officials argue that mandatory social-media reporting will strengthen identity verification, improve fraud detection and enhance national-security assessment.
In addition to social-media details, CBP plans to introduce several new data-collection requirements, including email addresses used in the past decade, phone numbers used in the last five years, previous IP addresses, photo metadata, expanded family information, and a broader range of biometric identifiers such as facial scans, fingerprints, iris data and DNA.
DHS said the expanded data fields align with updated federal biographic-data rules issued in April and are intended to modernize identity-management systems across US borders.
Another major proposal is the planned shutdown of the ESTA website — shifting all applications exclusively to a mobile-app platform.
The Visa Waiver Program, which covers travellers from 40 countries, processes more than 14 million ESTA applications annually. DHS estimates that the additional data requirements, alongside the mobile-only system, will increase the time and effort needed to complete applications.
A 60-day public comment period will open once the proposal is formally published.
If approved, the changes would mark one of the most extensive expansions of digital-identity and social-media screening in US immigration history.
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