The United States is proposing a major overhaul of its digital-screening process for millions of travellers entering the country through the Visa Waiver Program, introducing mandatory disclosure of social-media activity covering the past five years.
According to a new public notice released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the update will appear officially in the Federal Register and will significantly expand the information required on the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) explained that the revised system will no longer treat social-media disclosure as optional. Instead, applicants will be compelled to provide all social-media identifiers used in the last five years.
“The data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years,” the notice stated.
CBP said the move is part of efforts to implement Executive Order 14161, signed in January 2025, which directs federal agencies to strengthen screening mechanisms to better detect foreign security threats. The agency believes mandatory digital-footprint reporting will enhance identity verification, prevent fraud, and improve national-security assessments.
In addition to social-media details, the DHS is proposing several new data-collection requirements. These include email addresses used within the past ten years, phone numbers used in the last five years, IP address history, photo metadata, expanded family information, and a broader range of biometric data such as facial recognition, fingerprints, iris scans and DNA.
The department said the expanded data fields are consistent with updated federal biographic-data standards issued in April and are intended to improve accuracy across the identity-verification system.
Another major change under consideration is the elimination of the online ESTA web-application portal, 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. Officials say the new requirements, coupled with a mobile-only system, could increase compliance obligations and processing times.
DHS has opened a 60-day window for the public to comment on all proposed updates, including the mandatory social-media disclosure.
If implemented, the measures would mark one of the most extensive expansions of digital-identity and social-media screening in the history of US immigration policy.
