Seven new countries are to be admitted to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP)

President Bush announced that the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and South Korea — have met the requirements to be admitted to the United States Visa Waiver Program, bringing the total to 34 countries that have been accorded this special privilege of visa-free entry to the United States. The citizens of the above mentioned countries, in a month’s time, will be eligible to travel to the United States on business or tourism for 90 days or less without requiring a US visa.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and South Korea have agreed to share information about threats to the United States and also agreed that their citizens will have to register online ahead of their visits for screening purposes as well as obtain tamper-proof biometric passports (or E-passport) in order to travel to the United States.

Other countries, including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Poland and Romania, are on the “visa waiver road map” that is helping them qualify for the VWP.

The Visa Waiver Participating countries are:

 

Andorra	Iceland	Norway
Australia	Ireland	Portugal
Austria	Italy	San Marino
Belgium	Japan	Singapore
Brunei	Liechtenstein	Slovenia
Denmark	Luxembourg	Spain
Finland	Monaco	Sweden
France	the Netherlands	Switzerland
Germany	New Zealand	United Kingdom

 

For a VWP Traveler’s Guide by the Department of Homeland Security that outlines important changes in passport and e-passport requirements see:

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/id_visa/business_pleasure/vwp/vwp_timeline.ctt/vwp_timeline.pdf