The proposed rule, published in the U.S. Federal Register, applies to all visitors regardless of visa status, including those from visa-waiver countries such as the U.K., where tourists typically stay up to 90 days using a $40 ESTA authorization.

CBP Seeks Expanded Digital Disclosure

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has proposed that all foreign visitors disclose five years of social media accounts, email addresses, phone numbers, and contact information linked to their digital footprint.

According to the notice, this information would be “mandatory” and include the names, addresses, numbers, and birthdays of family members.

The plan extends current ESTA requirements, which today only request basic contact details and emergency information.

The proposal also introduces biometric expansions.

CBP intends to require facial photos (“selfies”) for ESTA applications and collect face, fingerprints, DNA, and iris data—beyond the face and fingerprint checks currently performed upon arrival.

These changes would place ESTA applicants under a more intensive screening regime than the existing two-year authorization process.

The proposal is now open for a 60-day public consultation window.

New Scrutiny for Online Speech

There have been several cases in which travelers have already been denied entry to the U.S. based on content discovered on their devices since President Donald Trump took office in January.

A French scientist turned away in March after messages deemed to “reflect hatred toward Trump and… described as terrorism” were found on his phone.

These incidents underscore how social media and private messages have increasingly influenced border decisions even before the proposed rule.

Operational Impact on Visa-Waiver Travel

The proposed expansion would particularly affect travelers from the U.K. and other visa-waiver states who rely on ESTA for short-term entry.

Britons currently submit simple contact details and travel information, but the document makes clear that future applications could require multiple years of digital history and significantly more personal identifiers.

The requirement to disclose social media accounts for five years represents a notably higher threshold compared with other Western immigration systems.

Collecting DNA and iris scans at the application stage would also shift biometric capture from the border to the pre-travel phase.

For high-volume tourist flows—such as millions of European visitors per year—CBP’s proposal reflects a strategic move to push security evaluation earlier in the travel chain.

While CBP asserts that the mandate aims to strengthen national security vetting, the breadth of required data, including family-member identifiers, poses operational and civil-liberties questions likely to surface during the 60-day consultation period.

For now, the proposal marks one of the most expansive digital-identity screening measures contemplated for U.S. entry in recent years.