On 9 November 2018, the EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs took place in Washington DC. The United States of America hosted the meeting and was represented by the U.S. Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker and Secretary for Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen.
According to the official joint statement from EU and US
The United States and the European Union agreed on the importance of advancing towards reciprocal visa free travel under their respective legal frameworks and, following the most recent tripartite meeting on visa reciprocity, welcomed the progress of the five concerned Member States towards meeting the statutory requirements of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), in order to be considered for designation in the programme.
Five member states current with no US visa waiver:
- Bulgaria,
- Croatia,
- Cyprus,
- Poland,
- Romania
To be eligible for VWP, a country must meet various requirements to be considered for designation in the Visa Waiver Program. Requirements include, but are not limited to:
- enhanced law enforcement and security-related data sharing with the United States;
- issuing e-passports;
- having a visitor (B) visa refusal rate of less than 3% percent;
- timely reporting of both blank and issued lost and stolen passports; and
- maintenance of high counterterrorism, law enforcement, border control, and document security standards.
Designation as a VWP country is at the discretion of the U.S. government.
ALL the five member states have maintained overstay stay below threshold of 3%, infact Croatia/Cyprus maintained less than 1%.
Under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, travelers in the following categories must obtain a visa prior to traveling to the United States as they are no longer eligible to travel under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP):
- Nationals of VWP countries who have traveled to or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011 (with limited exceptions for travel for diplomatic or military purposes in the service of a VWP country).
- Nationals of VWP countries who are also nationals of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria.
Read more here
