Romania has formally_ and finally_ met all technical requirements to be part of the Visa Waiver program, which allows visa-free travel to the US, ending years of frustration.
If U.S. authorities formally designate Romania as part of the program, as expected, Romanians can hope to start traveling to the States visa-free from mid-2025, Ambassador to the U.S. Andrei Muraru said.
Mr. Muraru announced Tuesday that the country had fulfilled all the conditions on Sept. 30, the last day of the American financial year.
“We expect confirmation from our American partners soon but our assessment, based on the number of visa applications this year, as well as the strong upward trend of recent years, is that Romania has fallen below three percent of visa refusals” , he said in a post.
The scrapping of visas is a long-term foreign policy goal_and a major source of frustration for many Romanians and successive governments. If Washington formally scraps visas, it would be a major political victory for the government and President Klaus Iohannis, who’s in charge of foreign policy.
Romanians will be able to travel to the United States without a visa in the first half of 2025 he predicted.
“Traveling without a visa to America is not only a privileged status for a country, but there will be important benefits for us as well. Being able to travel more easily, Romanians will build more bridges and …boost trade and investment. We also expect to soon have direct flights between Romania and America”, he said on a social media post.
Under U.S. law, the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of State, nominates a country to be included in the Visa Waiver Program providing it meets certain technical criteria. A mandatory condition is that the refusal rate of visas (type B) is below three percent in the year prior to entering the program.
At the end of August, Digi24 TV reported that U.S. authorities would make an announcement about scrapping visas on October 15.
Romania’s government launched a drive to get the country included in the “Visa Waiver” program this summer.
They urged Romanians with any kind of valid U.S. visa or a visa that expired no more than four years ago to apply for a B1 or B2 visa renewal to reduce the rate of U.S. visa refusals.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu will have a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Romania, Kathleen Kavalek later Tuesday, Agerpres reported.
