Finnish leisure and business travellers heading to the United States will soon encounter the most sweeping changes to America’s Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) since the programme began in 2009. A rule package published on 24 January 2026 requires nationals of Visa Waiver Program countries—including Finland—to submit five years of social-media history, extended contact details and additional biometric data when applying for, or renewing, their ESTA.
Under the new policy, travellers must list every social-media handle used during the past five years and agree that U.S. border agents may review public posts for security vetting. The Department of Homeland Security will also expand biometric capture beyond fingerprints and photographs to include iris scans and enhanced facial recognition. The tighter screening comes as Washington argues that “open-source intelligence” is critical to pre-departure risk assessments, but privacy advocates in both the EU and Finland warn that the move conflicts with GDPR principles of data minimisation.
For Finnish passport holders looking for an extra layer of support as these rules take effect, VisaHQ can handle the entire ESTA submission process—from verifying your social-media disclosures to monitoring approval timelines—so you avoid last-minute surprises at check-in. Corporate travel managers and individual applicants can begin the streamlined, Finland-specific workflow at https://www.visahq.com/finland/, where live advisors and clear document checklists help ensure full compliance with the new DHS requirements.
![US Rolls Out Stricter ESTA Rules—Finnish Travellers Face Social-Media Disclosure and Extra Biometrics]()
From a corporate-mobility perspective, Finnish companies with U.S. operations should prepare staff for longer lead times: ESTA approvals that once arrived within minutes could now take several days if an application is flagged for manual review. Travel-management firms are advising clients to file ESTA requests at least two weeks in advance and to audit employees’ public social-media content for potential red flags. HR departments may also need to update internal mobility policies to cover the disclosure of personal social-media data and to educate travellers on the implications of the new rules.
Carriers will be responsible for verifying that passengers have an approved ESTA at check-in. Failure to secure authorisation will mean “no permission, no travel,” according to DHS guidance—a policy that could create costly last-minute re-routing for Finnish exporters reliant on just-in-time visits to U.S. partners or plants. The American Chamber of Commerce in Finland has already signalled its intent to raise data-privacy concerns with U.S. officials, citing the commercial impact on Finland’s tech, gaming and clean-energy sectors that maintain sizeable footprints in California, Texas and the Midwest.
While the rules technically apply to all 42 Visa Waiver countries, Europe will feel the greatest pinch: in 2025 Finnish citizens made roughly 240,000 trips to the United States, nearly 60 % for business or MICE purposes. If GDPR friction intensifies, legal experts say a bilateral data-sharing workaround—similar to the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework—may become necessary to keep Finnish-U.S. mobility flowing smoothly.
Under the new policy, travellers must list every social-media handle used during the past five years and agree that U.S. border agents may review public posts for security vetting. The Department of Homeland Security will also expand biometric capture beyond fingerprints and photographs to include iris scans and enhanced facial recognition. The tighter screening comes as Washington argues that “open-source intelligence” is critical to pre-departure risk assessments, but privacy advocates in both the EU and Finland warn that the move conflicts with GDPR principles of data minimisation.
For Finnish passport holders looking for an extra layer of support as these rules take effect, VisaHQ can handle the entire ESTA submission process—from verifying your social-media disclosures to monitoring approval timelines—so you avoid last-minute surprises at check-in. Corporate travel managers and individual applicants can begin the streamlined, Finland-specific workflow at https://www.visahq.com/finland/, where live advisors and clear document checklists help ensure full compliance with the new DHS requirements.
From a corporate-mobility perspective, Finnish companies with U.S. operations should prepare staff for longer lead times: ESTA approvals that once arrived within minutes could now take several days if an application is flagged for manual review. Travel-management firms are advising clients to file ESTA requests at least two weeks in advance and to audit employees’ public social-media content for potential red flags. HR departments may also need to update internal mobility policies to cover the disclosure of personal social-media data and to educate travellers on the implications of the new rules.
Carriers will be responsible for verifying that passengers have an approved ESTA at check-in. Failure to secure authorisation will mean “no permission, no travel,” according to DHS guidance—a policy that could create costly last-minute re-routing for Finnish exporters reliant on just-in-time visits to U.S. partners or plants. The American Chamber of Commerce in Finland has already signalled its intent to raise data-privacy concerns with U.S. officials, citing the commercial impact on Finland’s tech, gaming and clean-energy sectors that maintain sizeable footprints in California, Texas and the Midwest.
While the rules technically apply to all 42 Visa Waiver countries, Europe will feel the greatest pinch: in 2025 Finnish citizens made roughly 240,000 trips to the United States, nearly 60 % for business or MICE purposes. If GDPR friction intensifies, legal experts say a bilateral data-sharing workaround—similar to the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework—may become necessary to keep Finnish-U.S. mobility flowing smoothly.
