Romania is very close to meeting all technical criteria for removing the US visa requirement, Romanian Ambassador to the US Andrei Muraru said after a meeting with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, with whom he discussed the joint efforts the two states are to make in the coming period for Romania’s accession to the Visa Waiver program, Romania’s Embassy to the United States of America announces on its Facebook page on Thursday.

„Romania is very close to meeting all technical criteria for visa requirement removal. We are a few weeks away from checking the last technical requirement – the denial rate – before concluding this project. Next is a technical process starting in October and spreading over several months, when there will be assessments on the US authorities’ side and an expert visit to confirm the positive results that have been worked a lot over the past three years. We wish as much as possible for the US authorities to conclude the bureaucratic procedures by the end of the Biden administration mandate, with the actual accession to the program to take place next year,” Romania’s Ambassador to the US Andrei Muraru pointed out.

The Romanian diplomat made a review of all technical requirements provided in the action plan agreed with the American side and which the Romanian side deems as having been met. Ambassador Muraru enumerated at the same time the considerable efforts Romania made for joining the Visa Waiver program and voiced hope that the American side would conclude the assessment for Romania’s admission to the program by the end of the mandate of the current administration at the White House. The US official appreciated the solid progress Romania made in this direction.

This was the last meeting that the two officials had before the end of the US fiscal year, an important milestone since Romania has set a goal of achieving a visa refusal rate of less than 3% in the current fiscal year (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024), a mandatory condition for a country to be considered eligible.

According to US law, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, designates a country to join the visa waiver program if it meets certain technical requirements. A prerequisite for a country to be considered eligible is that the rejection rate for visitor visas (type B) must be less than 3% in the year preceding entry into the program. Romania is aiming to achieve a visa refusal rate of less than 3% in the current US fiscal year (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024).

AGERPRES