Following years of challenges for visa liberalization with the EU, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Albania, Lulzim Basha, has expressed his commitment to the future, which is the removal of visas with the United States of America.
With solid ambitions toward this issue, he claims that after assuming the governance responsibilities, Albanians will move to within four years without visas to the US, VisaGuide.World reports.
My ambition and, at the moment, my dream, but I am convinced that, in the case of assuming the responsibilities of government, we will succeed in liberalizing visas with the USA within the next four years; Albanians moved without visas to the USA. We have started this political dialogue since then, but it has not advanced for reasons that are known.
With 150 Conditions Given for Visa Liberalization Process, Albania Reached Free Movement Agreement With EU
From the challenges faced in the visa liberalization process, Basha further stated that Albania was given 150 conditions, but that together with the team, they managed to exceed even the most unreachable expectations.
According to him, one of the challenges has been the persuasion of other EU members who continued to be sceptical, like the Netherlands, which later became one of Albania’s strongest supporters.
I was incredibly motivated when I received the offer of free movement. A part as a foreign minister, when we opened the dialogue on visa waiver, the main part was on visa waiver because 150 conditions would be needed. They imposed 150 conditions on us. Other countries had 90, 80, and 70 conditions, and we had 150. Now, there were two ways to deal with them.
Albania Aimed to Liberalize Visas With USA, Following Increase in Validity of Visas From 3 Years to 10
Last year, the American Ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim, expressed optimism while discussing the possible liberalization of visas with the USA.
She emphasized that one of the big things Albania did in 2022 was to increase the validity of visas from three years to ten years, which means that Albanians follow the rules more and more regarding visas.
In addition, the ambassador pointed out that extending the American visa period to ten years for Albanian citizens means that the USA is optimistic that visa liberalization can be done in the next ten years.
The same also revealed that trade between Albania and the USA doubled in 2019 from $139 million to $235 million. Albanian exports to the USA almost tripled in 2019, from 53 million to 137 million.