The government has launched the “Qualify Romania in the Visa Waiver Program” campaign, which aims at increasing chances of Romanian passport holders to travel to the US visa-free.
Through this campaign, the government is calling on citizens that have had their US visas already expired or that will expire within the last four years, to have them renewed by September 30, 2024, VisaGuide.World reports.
There is a huge opportunity, valid until September 30, so I urge all Romanian citizens who have a valid B1 or B2 visa and those who have had such a visa to apply for its renewal.
Romania Hopes to Boost Chances on Joining the US Visa Waiver Program
PM Ciolacu noted that by renewing visas, Romanian have higher chances to achieve the refusal rate of three percent and travel visa-free to the US by 2025.
Positive notes were also made by the Romanian Ambassador to the US, Andrei Muraru. Last month, the Ambassador said that Romania was reaching its goal of visa-free travel to the US and that it is in the final stages of becoming a member of the Visa Waiver.
According to Valentin Vătăjelu, the national coordinator for Romania’s accession to the Visa Waiver Programme, the country really has high chances for joining the programme, especially based on the rejection rates threshold.
With the US Embassy saying that visa figures are increasing to 60,000, there are good chances of Romanians traveling to the US without visas for tourism and business purposes, also known as the B1/B2 visas. Last year, visa rejection rates for Romanian applicants stood at eight percent.
In 2023, Romanians Were Granted Over 60K US Visas
The official data of the US Department of State show that Romanians were granted the highest record of visas ever in 2023 – a total of 60,474.
This means that approval rates for this nationality were 70 percent higher than in the previous year. In 2023, visa approval rates for Romanians nearly surpassed pre-pandemic levels, having only a difference of eight visas.
This nationality group represents the 30th nationality group with the most visas granted by the US authorities for the year, with only Japanese receiving more visas (75,305).
Compared to other EU countries, Romania falls only behind Germany. German passport holders were granted 64,866 US visas last year.
Romania, in addition to Bulgaria and Cyprus, all are candidates for joining the US Visa Waiver Program.