ESTA travel authorisation could soon include social media history for visa-free visitors to the US
Credit : Ivan Marc, Shutterstock
Travelling to the United States could soon feel very different for millions of people – including Brits, Spaniards and most Europeans – after Washington unveiled a controversial plan to tighten the rules for anyone entering under its visa-free programme. The Trump administration has proposed making applicants hand over five years’ worth of social media history, along with a long list of new personal details, before they’re allowed to set foot on US soil.
The proposal appeared december 10 in the Federal Register, the official US government record. Unless it faces a legal challenge, it’s expected to become official within 60 days.
What the US Wants: Social Media, Phone Numbers, Emails… and Even Family Details
At the moment, citizens from 42 countries – including the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan and Spain – can travel to the US without a visa for up to 90 days as long as they complete an ESTA form. It’s a quick process, or at least it has been until now.
Under the new rule, the ESTA application would become far more intrusive. Instead of simply declaring passport details and basic contact information, travellers would have to:
- List every social media handle they’ve used in the past five years
- Provide all phone numbers used over the past five years
- Submit the email addresses they’ve used over the past ten years
- And, for the first time, hand over personal details about family members — names, dates of birth, phone numbers, places of birth and residential addresses
The US Customs and Border Protection service describes social media information as a “mandatory data element”, signalling that this will not be optional.
The measure would effectively turn the ESTA into a mini-visa application, with a level of scrutiny many travellers have never faced before.
Why Now? The World Cup, security fears and a tougher line on foreign visitors
Although the proposal doesn’t directly spell out the reasons behind this expansion of surveillance, the timing offers some clues.
The United States is preparing to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Canada and Mexico – a high-security event expected to draw hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors. With global tensions running high, US officials appear keen to tighten border controls long before the tournament begins.
But the move also fits neatly into the wider political direction taken by the Trump administration over the past year. The government has already raised entry fees for foreign tourists at national parks, explaining the decision by saying it wanted to “give priority to Americans”.
That approach has coincided with a noticeable slump in foreign tourism. According to the US Travel Association, international arrivals are expected to fall 6.3% in 2025 compared with 2024, a drop largely blamed on the tougher climate surrounding travel to the United States.
Travel companies have been warning for months that the perception of increased hostility towards foreign visitors is already hitting the industry hard – and the new ESTA rules are unlikely to reassure hesitant travellers.
A Policy that could change the way Europeans travel to the US
For millions of Europeans who pop over to the US for holidays, study trips, business meetings or family visits, these changes could fundamentally reshape the experience. Asking border officials to sift through five years of someone’s online life raises obvious privacy concerns, and critics argue that the system could end up punishing travellers for jokes, political posts or old accounts they no longer use.
It may also place an additional burden on frequent travellers, who will now have to gather years of digital history for a process that once took only a few minutes.
Supporters of the proposal insist that stronger vetting is essential in a world where threats increasingly emerge online. But even in security circles, questions are being raised about whether the US has the capacity – or the legal clarity – to analyse such a vast amount of personal data fairly and consistently.
What is clear is that the ESTA, once seen as a fast and convenient way to enter the US, may soon become a much more demanding and intrusive application. And with visitor numbers already slipping, the travel industry is bracing for the possibility that even more travellers will decide the process simply isn’t worth the effort.
For now, the rule is only a proposal – but unless someone successfully challenges it in court, it is expected to become official within weeks.
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