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The United States has indefinitely paused the process of Romania joining the US visa waiver programme. This follows recent developments that the US has made regarding travel advice and migration measures.
Commenting on the matter, the Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, said he believes that this decision is a technical measure and stressed that the country will take advantage of the delay to work with the American authorities, Schengen.News reports.
The US government is currently carrying out assessments and reviewing the country’s eligibility to enter the visa-exemption program, which, as Politico reports, has strict requirements.
The Romanian Interior Minister already predicted a couple of days ago that there could be a possible delay in Romania joining the US visa-exempt programme due to Trump’s new rules.
US Pauses Visa Exemption for Romanians Due to Additional Assessments for Romania’s Eligibility
The list of visa waiver programme participant countries on the DHS website included Romania and its status said “to be announced”. Now the status is changed to “paused”, indicating that the process remains under review.
Recently, the US government has implemented strict measures, especially regarding travel. The new Trump administration is considering a colour-coded system which allows or prohibits travel from other countries to the US depending on travel advice
17 US Embassies Warn European Travellers Headed to the US
Previously, the US embassies in 17 EU countries have warned travellers that they could be deported if found they committed crimes, especially if those crimes threatened US national security.
The US plans to introduce more stringent rules that will impact many countries in the world. For example, several countries on the red list, including Sudan, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea are not allowed to travel to the US. Pakistan and Afghanistan are also expected to be included in this list.
Countries in the orange list have restrictions on some categories of travellers, including international students.
Source: https://schengen.news/romanias-entry-to-us-visa-waiver-programme-paused-until-further-notice/
