ESTA worry...

[ATreeWithABlueSky]

I completed my ESTA a couple of months ago and it came back approved within around 30 minutes, which I was quite impressed with. I've just printed off a copy for my records (flying to US next month) and I've remembered it asked for all my social media names and IDs etc and apparently this is no longer optional.

I don't use social media but I do have an old Facebook account just simply for keeping photos on. So I log on probably a few times a year to upload photos and that's it. But it's under a "fake" name because I didn't want a load of friend requests. Nothing weird just an affectionate nickname from when I was a child, a "normal" name but not my own. The other social media ID was Twitter something like "MissBrunette123". I wanted to be honest so just put them all on the form as much as I could remember.

Will I get turned away from immigration for this? For my name not matching on social media? To confirm in the "official" bit all details are correct DOB and name etc, it's just the social media carry on further down!

I applied last week and it was still optional then.

I googled it and apparently you're expected to fill it in now. I just wanted to be honest! It's a "social media identifier" so not my "name"

dont worry about it

It will not be a problem. A huge amount of people use nicknames/made up names on social media.

I thought it was optional, that must have changed recently. I have an account in my cat's name, am I supposed to declare that as well?!

It is still optional.

Look at the "do I have to answer the new questions if the provisions of the new Act do not apply to me" question on the CBP.gov page for visa waivers. It clearly states that the social media question is optional.