08:39 24/10/2021
From October 23, Croatian citizens can travel to the United States without a visa, the American Embassy in Zagreb announced. "This day also came. Congratulations to Croatia for officially joining the Visa Waiver Program," the US Embassy in Croatia said on its official Facebook page.
This Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) decision applies to Croatian citizens who want to visit the US for tourism or business and can stay there for no more than 90 days.
Croatia's membership in the so-called Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is an important step for further strengthening economic and security cooperation between the two states, the US Embassy in Zagreb said.
"We are extremely pleased that Croatian citizens now enjoy the possibility of visa-free travel to the US. This has been a long but important process and we welcome the Croatian Government's efforts to meet the stringent criteria of our program," said Mark Fleming, Charge d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Zagreb.
The Visa Waiver Program is a comprehensive security partnership between the US and participating states that allows travel to the US for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days, while protecting US national security.
For a state to become part of this program, it must meet criteria in the field of counterterrorism, law enforcement, migration, document security and border management, the statement said.
The embassy also said that the requirement to become part of this program is that the rejected visa applications must be below 3 percent. Croatia has recently fulfilled this criterion.
Travel authorizations that citizens receive from ESTA are usually valid for two years. Travelers with issued B1/B2 visas can now use them to travel to the US. In general, there are only three members of the European Union - Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus - that the USA has not yet revoked their visas./REL
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
