Posted on 11/28/2006 9:42:31 AM PST by lizol
U.S. to ease travel curbs for central Europeans: Bush
Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:46am ET
TALLINN (Reuters) - U.S. President George Bush vowed on Tuesday to work to ease travel curbs for citizens of central and eastern European countries in an immigration policy change set to please allies that have helped Washington in Iraq.
"I am pleased to announce that I am going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver program," Bush told a news conference during a visit to the Baltic republic of Estonia.
"It's a way to make sure that nations like Estonia qualify more quickly for the program and at the same time strengthen the program's security components," he said on the eve of a NATO summit in neighboring Latvia.
Eight ex-communist countries that joined the European Union in 2004 have long pressed Washington to include their citizens in the visa waiver program enjoyed by Western European states.
Polish diplomats have said it is unjust that the United States keeps strict visa requirements for Poles after Warsaw sent troops to Iraq to help topple Saddam Hussein and attempt to restore peace thereafter. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia have also sent troops to Iraq.
The United States does not require visas from citizens of 15 mainly longer-standing EU members, but its waiver scheme excludes Greece and the mostly ex-communist newest members, except for Slovenia.
Under current law, the United States may waive visas only when a country meets requirements such as a low rate of visa over-stayers and a visa refusal rate below 3 percent.
Ex-communist EU newcomers are the Czech Republic, Estonia Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Bush said the legislative process to ease visa restrictions would begin soon and likely involve the modification of the 3 percent threshold while ensuring that the new rules do not undermine U.S. security.
The European Commission, the EU's executive, proposed in October that member states force U.S. diplomats to apply for visas in retaliation for Washington's refusal to waive visa requirements for EU newcomers.
Under the current waiver program, people from 27 mostly European countries can travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa.
Roughly 15 million visa waiver program travelers visit the United States each year. Travel industry sources say the U.S. economy earns between $10 billion and $15 billion a year from these visitors.
How will this latest move also not put the entire U.S. national security at a much higher risk of another "9/11" situation(s)?
Shouldn't the point of immigration policy be to secure our nation's borders, not "please our allies"?
Hey you must be our new Mexicans......feel free to mow our lawns.....
It would make sense to put them on a level field with western Europe. Either open up the eastern part or put more restrictions on the western part. I personally feel that that countries like France are far more dangerous to the US and it's citizens than say Poland.
Do you even know what a visa is?
By putting more hard-working, moral, honest, freedom-loving, Christian patriots on the airplane who love the US and know what it means to be oppressed and will fight and die to prevent it happening again!
current, non-biometric passports + visas = bad,
proposed, biometric passports - visas = good.
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“It’s their country, they have enough problems and last thing they need is us bugging them out. Solution to it is simple; come in stay in time and leave; or come in legally with papers and live there and assimilate yourself to their culture. Don’t break a law they have. It is their country and they have right to be pissed off at people using them as a bank.
They work as hard we do, they don’t need a lecture how tough live is. They just want to have their lives put together. Because we are ally doesn’t mean we can just walk into their doors. That would disrespectful; it doesn’t fly in our culture and you know that.
I love United States as our own country; however they have their laws and they deserve fixing their own problems by themselves and not by others.”
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Thank you all.Serdeczne pozdrowienia/Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Best regards Salutations/Atentamente/Med venlig hilsen/Cordiali Saluti
Mexico...check
Eastern Europeans...Check
Saudis...check
Students from any hellhole...check
just continue...
We've been duped. I would suggest you all bid sovereignty good-bye. Or should I say "adieu and vayo con Dios"?
FMCDH(BITS)
I do, I do! It's something that people from other countries get from the US to come here and overstay and thumb their noses at all of us because we don't enforce our laws. Am I close?
FMCDH(BITS)
Not the definition I was looking for, but accurate just the same.
Not at all. Poland is the largest Central European Nation. Poles are the most pro-American nation on earth. There are 38 million of them, and they have been able to work without a visa in most of the EU for a couple of years now. They are 98% Catholic and unlikely to give us any trouble besides bad accents.
The other CE countries are of equally good stock.
Come and visit us for a nice vacation!
Well, for one, it will open the door to well educated Eastern Europeans many of whom know how to put together a clear English sentence, unlike some of the native born.
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