Israel not among nations getting visa waiver from U.S.

Source: Ha'aretz

President George W. Bush announced a decision over the weekend to exempt the citizens of seven more countries from the need to apply for U.S. visas; Israel was not among the seven.

The U.S. is also supporting the same measure for an additional six countries - Israel, again, is not one of them. The countries that received the exemptions are Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and South Korea.

The six additional countries on the road to visa exemption are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Romania. Several of these countries have assisted the U.S. in its war on terror, particularly in activities in Afghanistan.

Despite the special relationship between Israel and the U.S., the latter has refused Israel's requests in recent years to expedite visa exemptions. Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit made an official request on the matter two weeks ago when he met in Washington two weeks ago with Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029679.html

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I am sure this will come as a great relief to some.

for every other country with visa waiver programs. Quid pro quo.

fair is fair. I flew into Ben Gurion last month and made it through immigration with nothing more than a couple of questions; no prior visa required. If we aren't providing quid pro quo to Israel then perhaps they shouldn't let us be on their visa waiver program either.

That said, a friend of mine who was involved with this issue via the US embassy here said that (allegedly) it comes down to what percentage of that nation's travelers to the US overstay their visas. If it's above some certain percent, that country's not eligible for the VWP. I can't imagine Israelis are a problem, but possibly dual-nationals might enter on their Israeli passport and depart again on their US passport for some reason? This would artificially skew the 'overstay' numbers against Israel. Just a thought.

I think there might be an overstay problem.

Many young Israelis overstay and work here illegally. No Israeli dual-national would enter the US with their Israeli passport (they don't have a visa on that passport and would have to lie about their stay if they don't show their US passport), so the overstay numbers are not skewed.

i know a young man from slovakia who has overstayed 4 years, and it seems vegas and los angeles are just crowded w. people who have overstayed from eastern europe

how do they decide slovakia gets the waiver but israel doesn't? why can't they both get the visa waiver?

I THINK my friend quoted 5% - as long as the overstay is under 5% of total visitors (per year?) then the country is eligible to be added to the VWP.

But even the 'overstayed his/her visa' stats can be skewed artificially. My friend's wife is Czech (but without a spousal visa as yet - still processing), and whenever they leave the US he says it's a big hassle to find an immigration officer to officially log her out of the country. Think about it - unlike most countries, no US airport I've ever been to checks your passport ON THE WAY OUT, meaning no one is going to automatically stamp you out of the country, as is the case in virtually every other country I've ever been to or lived in (dozens). So if foregin traveller X doesn't know to find some immigration desk somewhere (my friend says they're not easy to find all the time) to get stamped out, and just gets on the plane and leaves, according to the system he's still in the US and will inevitably overstay his visa, thus upping the total for his country for no reason.

All it would take is adding a Passport Control station right after security like most countries do, and I'd bet some chunk of the overstay problem would go away.

But I was trying to include all possibilities. It doesn't make sense that any dual-national would enter the US on their non-US passport, but one never knows some of the nuances that may exist out there.

No complaints here. Israel must be reined in somehow from starting a shooting war in the wider Middle East.

J

what that has to do w. the visa waiver program i haven't a clue

i am in favor of erring on the side of good relations, the more countries we have good relations with and a visa waiver program with, frankly, the better

israel to my mind -- i just can't see any reasonable argument to be made for not allowing them to be part of the visa waiver program

making israeli tourists and students pay extra fees and jump thru extra hoops just doesn't sit well with me, it doesn't seem quite fair

is pretty happy about this. I always think these things are a good step, making it easier for people to visit other people, though my friend is going to America about a week before it ends so she still needs to go through the visa process!