The Prague Post
Hotel booking
November 21st, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague Property

Home » Archives » News

Visa waivers on the horizon

Czechs could travel visa-free to the U.S. within two years

By Lisa Nuch Venbrux
For The Prague Post
August 1st, 2007 issue

On July 27, U.S. Congress passed a bill making sweeping changes to the visa-waiver program. Once signed by President George W. Bush, the legislation will represent the most concrete step yet toward visa-free travel for Czechs.
The bill will likely be signed into law within days. “Since this is a proposal the administration favors, we expect he will sign it soon,” says U.S. Embassy Consul General Stuart Hatcher.
The news has been greeted with optimism among U.S. allies whose citizens must face red tape and hefty fees to visit the States. But there is much left to be done before Czechs get the green light to enter the visa-waiver program.
 “After the bill becomes law, the agencies responsible for enforcing it must study the text and come up with a strategy for implementing it,” Hatcher says.
The bill is part of broader legislation aimed toward improving U.S. national security and makes clear visa-waiver changes are being made in part to reward “partners in the war on terrorism.”
While the proposed laws will likely allow many more visitors to travel to the United States without visas for stays of less than 90 days, countries interested in visa waivers must meet strict security criteria laid out in the bill. The requirements include biometric passports and information exchange. Under the law, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will also establish a system to monitor the exits of aliens to ensure they don’t overstay.
“We expect it will be possible to fulfill this criteria” within two years, says Zuzana Opletalová, spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
While Opletalová maintains a cautious optimism about the changes, she takes issue with another requirement — that no more than 10 percent of visa applications can be rejected from a given country before they’re included in the program.
“We think it’s not a criterion that should be in this legislation,” she says. “It depends only on the U.S. Embassy. It’s a thing we cannot influence.”
Refusal rates have hovered around 9 percent in recent years, but “it can change very quickly,” Opletalová stresses.
Hatcher, however, says that based on this requirement alone the Czech Republic has little to worry about. The refusal-rate figure for 2007 will not be available until next April, but “we expect that it will be lower than the previous year.”

Lisa Nuch Venbrux can be reached at lvenbrux@praguepost.com


Other articles in News (1/08/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.