Travel to Trump's America

prodigy9

Hi, My elderly mother lives in the States and at nearly 90 years old I know I will have to attend her funeral there in the future.

The US has formally put in place the social media screening of some visitors, and the UK is on that list. I don't use Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and the like although I do use YouTube, and my comments there and on other sites are less than generous to Trump and his administration, though nothing violent.

Does anyone have experience of this, or know if there is any type of insurance that would cover refusal of entry?  For extra info I have always used my online presence under an alias so I don't know whether there are methods they could use to find my aliases.

Yours incognito

anon

TadleyBaggie

They haven't changed anything yet, it's only a proposal.

eskbanker

I was applying for an ESTA recently and the application form already asks for identification of social media profiles, although provision is optional - it would seem a bit pointless to be asking for these if they could find them out anyway!

Edit: the proposal document for this to become mandatory is here, starting its 60 day review process today:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/10/2025-22461/agency-information-collection-activities-revision-arrival-and-departure-record-form-i-94-and

Woodstok2000

It's just a proposal at this stage, but regardless they can still demand your phone and ask you to unlock it at immigration.  It's highly unlikely to happen, but if you are really worried then get/borrow a cheap phone and a PAYG sim to take with you and leave your phone at home.

prodigy9

TadleyBaggie said:

They haven't changed anything yet, it's only a proposal.

Who's gonna stop him? This seems likely before the World Cup.

prodigy9

eskbanker said:

I was applying for an ESTA recently and the application form already asks for identification of social media profiles, although provision is optional - it would seem a bit pointless to be asking for these if they could find them out anyway!

Edit: the proposal document for this to become mandatory is here, starting its 60 day review process today:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/10/2025-22461/agency-information-collection-activities-revision-arrival-and-departure-record-form-i-94-and

Yep, Section 3 requires the visitor to supply 5 years worth of social media details. I believe they will also require emails and phone numbers which by itself isn't anything, but as a means to search your online presence...

prodigy9

Woodstok2000 said:

It's just a proposal at this stage, but regardless they can still demand your phone and ask you to unlock it at immigration.  It's highly unlikely to happen, but if you are really worried then get/borrow a cheap phone and a PAYG sim to take with you and leave your phone at home.

I was already planning to get a burner phone, but filling and signing an official document confirming your social media presence is different. If I deny any and sign to that effect I'm pretty sure that's a crime.

QrizB

prodigy9 said:

If I deny any and sign to that effect I'm pretty sure that's a crime.

Potentially yes.

The forum has rules against encouraging criming so I guess the best advice we can offer is "answer honestly or don't go at all".

Woodstok2000

prodigy9 said:

Woodstok2000 said:

It's just a proposal at this stage, but regardless they can still demand your phone and ask you to unlock it at immigration.  It's highly unlikely to happen, but if you are really worried then get/borrow a cheap phone and a PAYG sim to take with you and leave your phone at home.

I was already planning to get a burner phone, but filling and signing an official document confirming your social media presence is different. If I deny any and sign to that effect I'm pretty sure that's a crime.

Right, but there's no official document that requests your social media information at the moment.  The current ESTA form 'requests' social media details but it's entirely optional and you can just leave it blank.  

prodigy9

Thanks for your replies. My question was whether there is any type of insurance that covers the US refusing entry.

Thanks again

Woodstok2000

prodigy9 said:

Thanks for your replies. My question was whether there is any type of insurance that covers the US refusing entry.

Thanks again

You can definitely get policies that cover denial of entry due to political upheaval, and you can also get policies that allow you to cancel at any time up to departure, so in theory you could cancel if your ESTA was denied.  I think you are very unlikely to find a policy that covers denied entry at immigration n the US if that is what you are concerned about.