Proposed US immigration changes

[reluctantbrit]

In case you still plan to visit the US, if this will be reality there is no way I am going near any US border.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/10/tourists-social-media-trump

Never say never.

We were hoping to access some medical treatment in the states, so different visa to an ESTA so this sounds awful.

I dont really share political stuff, especially not about the US, just a bit of neutral encouraging of voter registration and pro EU bits during brexit. Wonder if the latter would be seen as an issue

We were hoping to access some medical treatment in the states, so different visa to an ESTA so this sounds awful.

I would suspect the whiter richer you are, and/or more you intend to spend could have a very interesting effect on what is considered "unacceptable".

Remember, if you have $1,000,000 you can by yourself citizenship.

You'll be fine.

Cyber security usually advises private accounts to stop aggregation of info which can then be used to ID and target you. Lots of cyber attacks are now done through befriending people and getting in that way. In the public sector we are all encouraged to keep accounts private and I won’t be changing that.

Cackling, I wont visit the US while he's in charge, but even if I did submit my social media records the AI would have to be looking for references to 'sentient wotsit' or 'rapist' to flag me up as a Trump hater..

I went to the USA this summer. It was fine. They aren't going to see Ur social media if you just have the settings as private.

See upthread.

I read.

It was fine.

the whole point of this thread is that they are changing the ESTA/visa rules- where you weren’t obliged to supply your sm, they are now changing it to make it mandatory, and the provided profiles must be public.

So while it was ok for you in the summer, going forward it might not be.

There is no requirement to make profiles public. Just to provide your handles. If they make it a requirement to make SM public I will admit my mistake.

This is the post I saw today about that subject (not sure if it applies to all visas but clearly the requirement to make profiles public is here)

Yes not for tourism. Only if you're moving there for work/study.

It’s a bit naive to think oh we’ve always been fine, it will continue to be so, without even considering rule changes.

back in the day you got on a plane and filled out a little white card before you landed. No ESTA, no visa.

i’d be a bit daft to think oh I don’t need an ESTA, I can just get a card on the plane, it was fine before.

rules change, and it’s sensible to keep informed and stick to those rules to avoid issues. Rock up at border control and get an officer who’s feeling a bit jobsworth, you can’t complain if they have a problem with your social media set to private. Saying “oh it was fine last year” won’t get you an exemption from new policies.

@Usernamenotfound1i agree but it won’t have me clutching my pearls declaring I will never set foot on US soil

No, it's for all ESTA applications as well. It clearly states it in the Guardian and BBC articles.

Currently, I think, it applies for long-term visa but the proposal is that it will change.

It may not, maybe it's a lot of hot air and the US realises the impact on tourism and the huge amount of administration. Maybe not, maybe they will say, we don't care if people don't come.

But I think it's naive to think I just delete apps, put my accounts on private and don't declare all the required information.

Have lovely trip! My son's friend moved to the US for her masters. She had to set her social media to public to get her student visa. She did.. and she got her visa approved.

If they make it for esta (making accounts public and not just revealing the handle) I'd be surprised but admit my mistake. The whole point of the esta is to make travel authorisation quick and easy.

We're all talking about the proposals they've just put out - that have a 60 day consulation period - not past or current situation.

No changes have yet been made and persuably the 60 days is a period where agencies and instutions in US and perhaps beyond can comment on their future plans.

That what's hit the news cycle and it includes the proposal that all social media accounts are made public so they can check them -how they plan to check or if they'll do it for everyone and what's included they've not said.

They've not made the changes yet - well they done some changes for some types of visa - but we talking about fact they have put out a document saying they currently plan to make those changes for all entry.

Whether they do or not and when they do - no one can say as they've only just put this paper out there and they are in a 60 days consulation period.

https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/Management/CBP-proposes-five-years-of-social-media-identifiers-for-ESTA-requirements

The 5 years of social media posts is obviously the headline but the changes go beyond that -

“The social media requirement rides along with several other expanded information fields that CBP wants to impose on international business travellers and tourists. Other fields would include up to five years of prior telephone numbers and addresses for the ESTA applicant, IP addresses, and broadly expanded information about immediate family members like dates and places of birth, residences and telephone numbers going back ten years. It also calls for the current ESTA website forms to be phased out in favour of a fully mobile app-based protocol.”

Yes, I should perhaps be more clear. If you had a completely secret name on, let’s say, Reddit, but when you arrive in the US, you didn’t have the Reddit app, you have no emails from Reddit, you don’t use the username for anything else, and you clear your internet history - that is what people are recommending can be hidden this way, I think? The idea is that they will be checking what’s on your phone and decide immediately on clearing you or denying you, and I don’t even actually know if that’s the case.

Most importantly to me though, I’m very concerned that they proposed this without including an exhaustive list of what constitutes social media. Will Mumsnet be included since we have a “political” reputation, but Netmums won’t?

But yes, of course your accounts will still exist even if you delete the apps. The question is how much will the US government dig if you go to that trouble (delete apps, etc).

We finally have some money, DH and I with DD were planning on going to the US next year as we have always wanted to go the US. DH has never been, I visited once as a teenager (under Obama), but DH is very left leaning, he interacts with all sorts of domestic and international political posts on FB. Part of me is still tempted to chance it though if there is no concrete policy.

I thought you already gave them this info today, when you apply for an ESTA…..

no?

That's the point of the discussion. It's being brought in...

I get my new passport tomorrow so will be able to apply for my ESTA and can avoid this for a bit. I don't have anything to worry about though - there's nothing on my SM that could be problematic. I do worry about having to remember all the accounts though.

Just apply for the esta now.

The majority of people have no idea what their current public-facing IP address is, never mind years worth of them. Most ISPs don't give you a fixed IP address, so it will change without warning. This is completely unworkable.