US plans to require 5 years of social media history from foreign tourists
People stand in line outside the U.S. Embassy in Seoul’s Jongno District on Sept. 22 to apply for visas. News1
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is seeking to require applicants for the ESTA visa waiver program to provide social media information from the last five years, a notice showed Wednesday, in a move to tighten screening for foreigners' entry into the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted the notice in the Federal Register to obtain public comments for 60 days regarding the proposal to collect social media data, and request other pieces of additional information, such as applicants' biometrics, including DNA and iris scans.
The proposal is in line with an executive order that Trump signed in January to protect the U.S. from "foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats." If implemented, it is expected to subject applicants to tighter scrutiny. ESTA stands for electronic system for travel authorization.
The proposal calls for adding social media as a "mandatory" data element for an ESTA application.
Under it, CBP also seeks to add several "high value data fields" to the ESTA application, "when feasible," according to the notice.
Those fields include personal and business phone numbers used in the last five years; personal and business email addresses used in the last 10 years; and family members' names, their dates of birth, places of birth and residences, and their phone numbers used in the last 5 years.
CBP can also request biometric information, such as applicants' fingerprints, DNA and iris scans.
CBP will decommission the ESTA website application process to establish the ESTA mobile application as the sole platform to apply for a new ESTA, the notice said.
Comments on the proposal should be submitted no later than Feb. 9. After the public comment period, the Trump administration is expected to implement it.
Under the ESTA program, citizens of eligible countries are allowed to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days for tourism or other purposes.