Visa requirements for Poles visiting the U.S. could soon be relaxed.

The Warsaw Business Journal ^ | 7th February 2005

[lizol]

Visa requirements for Poles visiting the U.S. could soon be relaxed

From Poland A.M.

Condoleezza Rice, the American Secretary of State, visited Poland on Saturday.

Although she only stayed four hours, she still managed to deal with numerous issues. The most important being that Poland and the U.S. accepted a plan leading to the lifting of visa obligations for Poles traveling to the U.S., or at least making them less severe. Details of the plan, dubbed "Road Map" by Prime Minister Marek Belka, will be revealed only after the meeting of George Bush with President Aleksander Kwaœniewski, who visits the U.S. on Wednesday. The "Road Map" envisages the actions that will be taken until 2006. Belka said, however, that accepting the plan does not mean that Poles will be allowed to enter the U.S. without visas in 2006. It is not the White House but Congress who decides which countries have visa free entry to the U.S. Poland presently does not meet the formal requirements for countries included on the list. There was one exception made for Ireland, prior to September 11 2001, since then the regulations have been tightened again. Another requirement is the issuing of new passports that have the latest protection against forgery and a computer chip with the owner's data. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A5) D.W.

[lizol]

Eastern European ping list

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[July 4th]

This is a big deal for Poland. I hope we're able to work something out that's acceptable to both sides.

[Lukasz]

It is rather stalk in Polish eyes, but for sure I would not call this big deal.

[JohnnyZ]

Poland has the potential to be the moral leader of the EU. They deserve every convenience we can give them.

[dd5339]

Vic,

Send this info over to Adam!

Semper Fi

[PhilDragoo]

Thank you. It is good that Condi is doing this first thing.

[curiosity]

Ain't gonna happen, I'm sorry to say. Too many Polish vistors overstay their visas and work illegally, and our interior immigration enforcement is too lax to effectively prevent this. Thus, unfortunately, the visa requirment remains necessary to screen out Poles likely to overstay their visas.

[Grzegorz 246]

You are right, we don't really need this Visa free status, instead we should demand some serious military aid - for example $300 million a year.

[Paul_Denton]

Militarize the Mexican border and give visa-free status to the Poles.

[Lukasz]

As I know life we will get nothing or something meaningless and unimportant.

[Grzegorz 246]

I don't want to be more American than Americans, but this is fault of our politicians, they don't understand how to talk with US government. We got nothing, but have we ever asked for anything else than this free visa status ? No. All this visa affair is very complicated, If Poles got special treatment, then Bulgarians, Romanians and at least 10 other countries would say that they want the same.
That's why we should ask for serious military aid and forget about those visas. Of course we can't say: give us cash or we will leave Iraq, but we should say: If you don't give us military aid, we won't be able in the future to send any serious number of soldiers to Iraq, Afghanistan or any other foreign mission.
We should also try to convince them to give military aid to all Central/Eastern European NATO members - $800 million a year would be very helpful, it's not that much, they give every year about $2 billion to Egypt.

[curiosity]

Very sensible. We should move our European military bases from Germany to Poland. It's a more convenient location from which to keep an eye on the Russians.

[Potomac]

moral leader of UE? Did you read this?: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1337277/posts

[hershey]

Sounds like a plan.

[Mr. Lucky]

This is a big deal for Poland.

This is a big deal for America. We're officially admitting that there's a difference between the good guys and the bad guys.

[Potomac]

and more moral and intellectual leaders :http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335359/posts
ROFL

[JohnnyZ]

and more moral and intellectual leaders

What is it, are you 12, or do you hate Poles or something? Grow up.

[Grzegorz 246]

He, she (whatever it is) has some serious Polish complex - check his/her "In Forum" option.