Dept. of State Addresses Visa Waiver Program ("90 Day Visitor Visas")
Below is the State Dept.'s response to an inquiry on the review of the
Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The State Department is currently reviewing
the details of the program and each eligible country's continued participation
in light of security concerns from the events of September 11.
VWP allows nationals of certain countries to board a plane or other
transportation
conveyance for travel to the US without first obtaining a visitor's visa
from a US Consulate abroad. Instead, even without a validly issued visa,
the INS inspector at U.S. Port of entry will make a determination of
how long the applicant is admitted into the U.S. as either a Business
Visitor ("WB" - equivalent to a B-1 Visa) or as a Tourist Visitor ("WT"
- equivalent to a B-2 Visa).
Visa Waivers are only applicable for the puspose of a short visit to
the US (no employment is authorized) and for nationals of certain enumerated
countries which have met the eligibility criteria as listed below.
Visa Waiver Program
Question: What is the status of the review of the Visa Waiver Program?
Answer: The Visa Waiver Program does not "waive" any requirements for
entry into the United States. All applicants to the program must still
demonstrate, upon arrival at a port of entry, their eligibility to be
admitted. Applicants unable to do so are denied entry into the United
States by the INS. We remind you that a visa does not grant foreign nationals
entry into the United States, but only allows them to apply for admittance
to an INS officer at the port of entry. Persons in possession of valid
visas must also apply for admittance to an INS officer at the port of
entry. INS also conducts a name-check for every foreign national applying
for entry to the United States. The name-check system includes information
from all intelligence and other federal agencies.
To be eligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program, a country must
have a Non-Immigrant Visa applicant refusal rate of less than 3%, a machine
readable passport program in place, demonstrate that adequate safeguards
against fraudulent use of their passports are in place, and be sufficiently
stable to ensure that conditions which could affect the program qualifying
criteria are not likely to change in the future.
Additionally, Visa Waiver Program countries must have effective border
controls in place for all territory under their control and the countryıs
law enforcement must demonstrate sufficient cooperation with U.S. counterparts
as well as international entities such as Interpol. Security is our first
and foremost priority in the visa process.
Participating countries are periodically reviewed as a matter of routine.
We worked with INS to review six countries last year. Joint INS/Department
of State teams visited Argentina, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia
and Uruguay in November and December. Argentina was removed from the
program under the Attorney Generalıs emergency authority. We await INS
to finish its report and present it to the Department for formal consultations.
For comment on the status of the report, we refer you to INS.
Countries are admitted to the Visa Waiver Program only after the Attorney
General has submitted a report on the qualifications of the particular
country, including a favorable determination, to Congress.
For more information on the Visa Waiver Program, we refer you to our
website: http://travel.state.gov/vwp.html.
