US ambassador vows to help lift visas for Poles
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
22.03.2019 13:00
The US ambassador in Warsaw has vowed to help lift visas for Poles traveling to America by the end of her term in office.
Georgette MosbacherGeorgette Mosbacher/Twitter via US Embassy in Warsaw
In an interview aired by private television broadcaster Polsat News on Thursday evening, Georgette Mosbacher said she was working to make Poland part of the US Visa Waiver Program by the time she leaves her post in Warsaw.
Asked if the visa requirement for Poles could be scrapped still this year, Mosbacher said:
“Hopefully this year, but before I leave.”
US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said during a visit to Warsaw last month he hoped visa requirements for Poles traveling to America would be revoked “soon.”
“There are a set of requirements that we have in place. Poland is getting closer and closer," Pompeo said at the time.
The threshold for a country to enter the US Visa Waiver Program is a 3-percent refusal rate.
According to the US State Department, American consulates in Warsaw and Kraków in 2017 rejected 5.9 percent of visa applications submitted by Poles, up from a record low of 5.37 percent in 2016.
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Croatia are the only EU member countries not included in the US Visa Waiver Program.
(gs)
Source: polsatnews.pl