The Department of Homeland Security has proposed new rules that would require travelers from the 42 countries in the visa waiver program to provide extensive online and personal data before entering the United States. The proposal, published in the Federal Register and open for 60 days of public comment, would expand information collection beyond the current Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
Under the plan, eligible travelers could be asked to submit five years of social media history, every email address used in the past 10 years, phone numbers and home addresses for immediate family members, and potentially IP addresses and metadata from photos submitted digitally. DHS says the changes implement a January executive order intended to protect national security and public safety and guard against violent or hateful ideologies, but it has not defined which kinds of online activity would be considered problematic.
Today, visa-waiver visitors typically apply through ESTA for a $40 fee and avoid the longer visa process; the notice also suggests replacing the current web-based application with a mobile-only platform. Legal and immigration experts note that consular social-media checks are already used for some visa categories, so the proposal extends existing practice rather than creating it anew. But critics say the draft is broad and leaves important judgments to individual officers, creating risks of inconsistent decisions and potential political bias. Without clear standards, lawful expression or dissenting views could be misinterpreted as security threats.
Marissa Montes, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School, said it is unclear when or how the information would be collected — whether applicants must provide it in advance or whether officers could request it at the border — and called discretionary enforcement troubling. She advises clients to monitor not only their own posts but also interactions such as likes, comments and shares, which can be reviewed; she also warned that deleting accounts entirely may attract scrutiny.
The proposal follows other administration moves to broaden online screening: the State Department has said it will review social media for foreign student visa applicants, and consular staff were instructed recently to reject some applicants who worked in content moderation or fact-checking. The Federal Register notice outlines the proposed information-collection changes and solicits public feedback before any rule is finalized.