Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu says he believes that by October Romanians will no longer need visas to travel to the U.S.
He urged Romanians to go to the embassy and renew their expiring visas to reduce the refusal rate.
“The U.S. fiscal year ends in September. I am firmly convinced that in October, at the latest, we will no longer have visas with the US. It is true that Romanians need to get out there and go and renew their visas which are about to expire,” Mr. Ciolacu told Antena 3.
He pointed out that Poland has also achieved this. “We need a mobilization of Romanians and to understand that now is a historic moment in which we must get involved,” the prime minister stressed.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis discussed scrapping visa requirements for Romanians during a visit to Washington last week where he met President Joe Biden.
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens of participating countries to travel to the United States for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa.
There are 41 countries on the VWP including Romania’s neighbors: Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
Citizens from VWP countries need to complete an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), an electronic system for screening passengers before they begin travel to the United States.
Romania recorded the lowest visa refusal rate for the U.S. in 2023 in the history of the bilateral relationship with the United States with a rate of 8.8%. However, it needs to reduce that further to 3% to be eligible for the VWP.
It takes about two hours to fill in a visa application and costs $180. After that, most candidates need to physically go to the embassy for an interview. The process is easier for people whose visas have recently expired.
