United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) has issued a Proposed Rule (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf) that will make a number of changes to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), the mechanism that allows citizens of certain countries (currently Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta,  Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) to enter the United States in B-1 or B-2 Visitor status for up to 90 days under the Visa Waiver Program without first obtaining a nonimmigrant visa.

The comment period for this Proposed Rule will be sixty (60) calendar days from December 10, 2025. Once USCBP has reviewed all the comments received, a Final Rule will be published. This is not likely to happen until the spring of 2026.

Social Media Information Required in ESTA Application

The most notable of these changes is a new requirement that all ESTA applicants provide information in their applications about their “social media” activity during a period of five years before the application is filed. United States consulates are now conducting similar social media vetting for F, M, J, H-1B and H-4 visa applicants.

The purpose of USCBP’s review of the social media activity of ESTA applicants’ online presence review is to identify applicants who may be inadmissible to the United States by posing a threat to national security or public safety.  USCBP has not provided any clarity on the type of social media content that may be considered to reflect such a threat, but vetting instructions previously issued to consular officers have asked them to identify indications of “hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States” or of aid or support for designated foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security or unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.  A “history of political activism” may also be considered problematic by a consular officer.  If evidence of such a threat is identified, the ESTA application may be denied, and the applicant will have to apply for a B-1/B-2 visa at a U.S. consulate.

Given the broad scope of online social media activity that may be considered evidence of a threat to national security or public safety, all future ESTA applicants should review closely their social media content, including posts placed on such content by other persons, to determine if this contains any items that a USCBP could choose to interpret as reflecting such a threat.  Such items may include the following:

• Any comments that are critical of, or disrespectful towards, the Trump presidential administration, of the President himself, or of any person closely associated with the administration.
• Any comments that express a negative view of any aspect of the United States, including its history, culture, politics, and social traditions.
• Any comments that are supportive of, or sympathetic to, any nations or organizations that have traditionally been antagonistic to the United States. These include Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and the state of Palestine, as well as any organizations that have been classified as terrorist organizations by the State Department.  A list of such organizations is available at https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations.

Evidence that the applicant has worked in factchecking or content moderation position and is deemed to “responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the U.S..”

Inclusion of High Value Data Fields in ESTA Application

The Proposed Rule also requires the addition of certain “high value data fields” to the ESTA application form to supplement the information already required by the form. All ESTA applicants will have to provide the following information:

• Telephone numbers used in the prior five years;
• Email addresses used in the prior ten years;
• IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos;
• Names of the applicant’s parents, spouse, siblings, and children and their dates and places of birth;
• Family telephone numbers used in the prior five years;
• Residencies [sic] of the applicant’s parents, spouse, siblings;
• Biometrics, including face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris;
• Business telephone numbers used in the prior five years; and
• Business email addresses used in the prior ten years.

 

Other ESTA Changes

The Proposed Rule also plans to introduce a number of other modifications to the ESTA process, including the following:

 

• Decommissioning the ESTA website and making the ESTA Mobile App the only ESTA mechanism through which applications may be filed;

 

• Requiring the uploading of a photograph to the mobile app in addition to the photograph in the applicant’s passport biographical page;

 

• Introducing an optionalnew functionality in the USCBP Home mobile app to allow nonimmigrants (not just persons admitted under ESTA) to provide evidence of their exit or departure from the United States. This will require the person to provide a facial image. This will allow USCBP to use a “geolocation” service to confirm that the person has departed the United States.

Persons entering the United States under ESTA should bear in mind that USCBP officers may, upon entry into the United States, also request a review their social media activity by asking for access to their phones, laptops, and other devices.

The changes made to the ESTA application process are likely to be adopted and will almost certainly be in effect by the time of the summer travel season next year. These changes are likely to delay the processing of ESTA applications and persons who intend to enter the United States as visitors under ESTA are encouraged to file their applications as soon as possible and before these changes take effect. ESTA approvals are currently valid for two years, and applications approved before the new changes take effect will probably not be subject to these new requirements.