Poland should join list with visa waivers

Rocky Mountain News ^ | October 17, 2005

[RWR8189]

Despite a meeting last week with President Bush, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski is stepping down after 10 years in office without something he and the Polish people wanted badly, and something that Bush could confer with relative ease - a visa waiver.

A visa waiver allows residents of a favored country to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days on business or pleasure without going through the worsening hassle of obtaining a U.S. visa.

There are 27 visa waiver nations: all of Western Europe, including Scandinavia; Iceland, Slovenia in the Balkans, and Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Brunei in the Far East. (A separate waiver covers Canada and Mexico.) The mechanics of visa waiver status are fairly straightforward: meeting international standards for passports and their verification and certain safeguards against abuse of the waiver.

And Poland has a valid claim on us. It is a member of NATO, the European Union and the coalition forces in Iraq and maybe the most pro-U.S. nation in Europe. Friendship with the United States should mean something and one way of showing it is including Poland in the circle of visa waiver countries.

[F14 Pilot]

interesting!

[Marylander]

Aside from England, have we ever had a better friend than Poland? I don't think so. We should make it clear that we welcome our Polish friends whenever they would like to visit and for as long as they would like to stay.

[speedy]

I was in Poland two years ago, and this is a major issue with them. They are very hurt by the deaf ear the US has turned toward them. Seems crazy that an anti-US country like France, which has done everything it could to undermine the WOT, gets such a waiver, while Poland, where the US is very popular and which has steadfastly supported us in Iraq, does not. I have no concept of what W is thinking on this one.

[GarySpFc]

A visa waiver allows residents of a favored country to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days on business or pleasure without going through the worsening hassle of obtaining a U.S. visa.

Friendship doesn't have anything to do with the visa waiver program. The experience the US has with a high number of visitors NOT returning home takes them off the program. There are too many illegal Poles.

[F14 Pilot]

No! France is not on the waiver list any more!

I thought they have cancelled this waiver thing last October though!

[GarySpFc]

No, the VWP has not been cancelled, but it may be that a country has been taken off or added to the list.

[nuconvert]

I believe the new requirement is that people from countries on the visa waiver list must have a machine-readable passport to enter the United States without a visa. Old style passports require a visa.

[raybbr]

Friendship doesn't have anything to do with the visa waiver program. The experience the US has with a high number of visitors NOT returning home takes them off the program. There are too many illegal Poles.

Funny how we can control Polish immigration but let all the hispanics in. If we truly need the labor why not let Europeans in as well? Why only South Americans and mexicans?

[bourbon]

How a country qualifies for the VWP.

[Gay State Conservative]

Funny how we can control Polish immigration but let all the Hispanics in. If we truly need the labor why not let Europeans in as well? Why only South Americans and Mexicans?

Why? Because Mexicans would tend to vote democRAT and Poles would tend to vote Republican.

[GarySpFc]

I believe the new requirement is that people from countries on the visa waiver list must have a machine-readable passport to enter the United States without a visa. Old style passports require a visa.

That is only one of the problems, but there are several on the VWP who are not there yet. In Poland's case they simply come to visit and stay, end of story.

[GarySpFc]

Funny how we can control Polish immigration but let all the hispanics in. If we truly need the labor why not let Europeans in as well? Why only South Americans and mexicans?

We do not allow Mexicans and South Americans in on the VSP. See the list at http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#2 The Mexicans and South Americans for the most part come here illegally.

[GarySpFc]

Why? Because Mexicans would tend to vote democRAT and Poles would tend to vote Republican.

Where did you get the idea that Poles would vote Republican? Their history suggests anything but that.

[Gay State Conservative]

Where did you get the idea that Poles would vote Republican? Their history suggests anything but that.<.I>

Two reasons...1)many Eastern Europeans have a very positive opinion of America and Americans.In order to vote democRAT,one must have a pretty negative opinion of this country.....2)most Eastern Europeans have very fresh and very negative opinions of Communists.Once they understand that today's democRATS sound so much like the Communists they know so well,they'll run the other way.

[GarySpFc]

Two reasons...1)many Eastern Europeans have a very positive opinion of America and Americans.In order to vote democRAT,one must have a pretty negative opinion of this country.....2)most Eastern Europeans have very fresh and very negative opinions of Communists.Once they understand that today's democRATS sound so much like the Communists they know so well,they'll run the other way.

Firstly, the facts regarding Poles leaning Republican are anything but that. Their government until this last election was STRONGLY SOCIALIST, in fact communist, with a different name.
Secondly, Since the fall of the Iron Curtain Poles have voted for a strong socialism, and that is why they have rampant inflation and a 20% unemployment rate.

In summary, you have all the evidence totally against what you are saying.

[kaiser80]

We have rampant inflation?????

[newfarm4000n]

Isn't the non PC reason that no-one is willing to say out aloud is that the general skill and productivity ( that doesn't mean merely working harder) is MUCH lower in Poland than it is in western Europe or the other countries.

[newfarm4000n]

Where did you get the idea that Poles would vote Republican? Their history suggests anything but that.

even if they did WHO CARES !

[GarySpFc]

Where did you get the idea that Poles would vote Republican?

I did not say that, but was quoting someone who posted before me attempting to justify that Poles were entitled to the visas, because they would be Republicans. I was denying it.