Will European travelers soon have to provide more information to visit the United States without a visa? The question has come up repeatedly in recent months, both in U.S. administrative documents and in the work of European institutions.
For now, no broad change has yet taken effect for travelers applying for an ESTA electronic travel authorization. But two separate issues are moving forward in parallel.
The first concerns discussions between the European Union and the United States over maintaining the Visa Waiver Program, the U.S. visa-free travel program. The second concerns possible changes to the ESTA form itself, with new information that could be requested before departure.
Talks tied to preserving visa-free travel to the United States
The European file concerns the Enhanced Border Security Partnership, or EBSP.
In a briefing published on April 22, 2026, the European Parliament’s Think Tank explains that the European Commission is negotiating a framework agreement with the United States intended to preserve visa-free travel under new U.S. requirements. Washington wants countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program to be able to share more information with U.S. authorities, particularly to better verify the identity of certain travelers, detect potential security risks and support immigration-related checks. This framework could provide access to some information stored in national databases, including biometric data.
The issue, then, concerns the conditions under which citizens of European countries can continue to travel to the United States without applying for a visa, for short tourist, business or transit stays. According to the European Parliament, this future framework would still need to be approved by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force.
The European Commission’s goal is to avoid having each member state negotiate separately with the United States. The framework under discussion would set general rules for information exchanges, while leaving member states to decide which data and national databases they would agree to include.
This point is important to understanding the issue. At this stage, it is not a matter of automatically transferring all data on all European travelers to U.S. authorities. The discussions still need to define the exact scope of the people concerned, the types of data that could be exchanged, the authorities that could access them, the applicable safeguards and the avenues for redress.
Personal data at the heart of the debate
The protection of personal data is one of the most sensitive points in the negotiations. The European Parliament notes that the European Union and the United States do not take the same approach to the issue.
In the European Union, the protection of personal data is considered a fundamental right and is based in particular on the GDPR. In the United States, it is governed more by a set of sector-specific laws.
The European Data Protection Supervisor has already expressed reservations about the file. It has stressed the need to limit any exchange of information to what is strictly necessary and proportionate. The European Commission has also emphasized the need for safeguards to prevent any misuse of personal data.
These concerns echo those of the European Data Protection Board, which questioned Brussels in March about the planned changes to ESTA. The body is particularly concerned about the volume of personal data that could be collected or disclosed concerning travelers from the European Economic Area, as well as the safeguards they would have to exercise their rights under U.S. law.
ESTA, the visible side for travelers
Alongside these talks, U.S. authorities have launched an administrative procedure concerning ESTA and the I-94 form. In a notice published in the Federal Register on December 10, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detailed several proposed changes to the electronic travel authorization application.
Among the proposed changes are the mandatory addition of social media platforms used over the past five years, as well as new data fields, including phone numbers, email addresses, certain family information and biometric elements, where available.
CBP also plans to strengthen the use of photos in the ESTA process. In its Federal Register notice, the U.S. agency says it wants to better verify that the applicant is indeed the holder of the passport being used, particularly through a facial photo, or selfie, paired with the image of the document’s biographical page. Although the full set of proposed changes has not yet been approved, this requirement has already been tightened recently on the ESTA portal, with stricter checks on image quality, facial framing and the match with the passport.
Another proposed change would make ESTA applications available only through the mobile app. CBP says the app allows for more advanced identity checks than the website, including liveness detection, facial recognition and NFC reading of the electronic passport chip.
U.S. authorities describe this change as a way to strengthen security and combat fraud, including poor-quality submissions and fraudulent third-party websites. The ESTA website could remain available to view information or check the status of an application, but would no longer be used to submit a new application if the change is approved.
ESTA reform: Where does the U.S. timeline stand?
For now, the U.S. timeline appears to be moving more slowly than the scenario put forward at the start of the procedure.
The notice published by U.S. authorities opened a 60-day public comment period, which ended on February 9, 2026. This stage was intended to allow the public, stakeholders and government agencies to submit comments on the proposed changes to ESTA and Form I-94.
In a statement issued shortly afterward, the U.S. Embassy in France sought to clarify the timeline after the February 9, 2026 date caused some confusion over whether the new measures might take effect then. The embassy reminded travelers that they should continue to follow the current procedure until further notice and outlined an estimated roadmap: review of comments after February 9, publication of a new 30-day notice between March and April 2026, review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) between April and May, and possible implementation after approval.
At this stage, however, the procedure does not appear to have moved forward according to that schedule. The new 30-day notice, expected on an indicative basis between March and April, has not yet appeared in the Federal Register.
In practice, this means that the proposed new ESTA requirements cannot be considered imminent or already in force. Before any implementation, the U.S. administration must still publish a new notice, submit the finalized request to the OMB and obtain the necessary approval. For travelers, the rule therefore remains unchanged: until an official implementation announcement is published, the current ESTA procedure continues to apply.
The European timeline is separate from the ESTA timeline. According to the European Parliament briefing, the United States has set December 31, 2026, as the deadline for concluding agreements linked to the Enhanced Border Security Partnership. That date concerns the information-sharing framework between authorities, not directly the ESTA form currently used by travelers.
The two issues are nevertheless connected by the same underlying logic: strengthening pre-departure checks and better identifying travelers before they arrive in the United States.
