Waiver Visa Adalah

Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015

Under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, travelers in the following categories must obtain a visa prior to traveling to the United States as they are no longer eligible to travel under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP):

These individuals can apply for visas using regular appointment processes at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Consular sections overseas may be able to expedite your interview date if there is an urgent, unforseen situation such as a funeral, medical emergency, or school start date. For more information, please visit the website of the Embassy or Consulate Visa Section where you will interview.

If an individual who is exempt from the Act because of his or her diplomatic or military presence in one of the seven countries is denied ESTA, he or she may go to the CBP website, or contact the CBP information Center. The traveler may also apply for a nonimmigrant visa at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection strongly recommends that any traveler to the United States check his or her ESTA status prior to making any travel reservations or travelling to the United States. More information is available on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website.

Must Be a Citizen or National of a VWP Designated Country*

You must be a citizen or national of the following countries* to be eligible to travel to the United States under the VWP.

**To be eligible to travel under the VWP, British citizens must have the unrestricted right of permanent abode in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.

How to request a travel authorization to the U.S. through ESTA

If you find out your country participates in the Visa Waiver Program:

When you complete and submit the form and processing fee, you will get an ESTA application number. Use that number to check the status of your application. It may take up to 72 hours to find out if you are authorized to travel to the U.S. under the VWP.

Each approved ESTA application is generally valid for two years and allows multiple visits to the U.S. within that period without having to apply for another travel approval. If your passport expires in less than two years, you will receive an ESTA approval valid until the passport's expiration date.

When you travel to the U.S. for tourism or business under the VWP, you may stay up to 90 days per visit.

If you have questions about the ESTA and VWP application process, visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) FAQ page.

Find out the requirements for ESTA

If you are a citizen of a country participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), you must meet the eligibility requirements to travel to the U.S. under the program. You will also need authorization through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) before beginning your trip. Learn about the VWP and ESTA and if your country participates in the program.

Hungary's participation

In October 2017, U.S. officials discovered a massive passport fraud scheme in Hungary, in which hundreds of non-Hungarians obtained genuine Hungarian passports.[71][72] A U.S. Department of Homeland Security report (obtained by the Washington Post and reported in May 2018) showed that of approximately 700 non-Hungarians who had obtained the passports, 85 had attempted to travel to the United States under false identites, 65 had been admitted to the United States through the VWP, and (as of October 2017) approximately 30 remained in the United States despite the efforts of U.S. authorities to locate and deport them.[71] The fraud was enabled by a policy implemented in 2011 by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; under the policy, the Hungarian government provided passports to ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary, who could prove that one of their ancestors was a Hungarian citizen, with the goal of expediting naturalization.[71][73] More than a million people obtained Hungarian citizenship through the program.[72][71] Because the program lacked stringent identity-verification procedures, it was abused by bad actors, including criminals and applicants who used forged documents to falsely claim Hungarian descent.[73][71] Some who received Hungarian passports under the program were criminals without any connection to Hungary.[73]

U.S. officials were alarmed by the risks created by the program, including the risk that the passports might be used in drug smuggling, organized crime, illegal immigration, espionage, or terrorism.[71] In October 2017, the U.S. government downgraded Hungary's status in the VWP to "provisional" and sought to develop a "cooperative action plan" within 45 days.[71][74] U.S. and Hungarian officials engaged in a dialogue for several years on resolving the security risks, but Hungarian authorities failed to resolve the issues to the U.S. government's satisfaction.[73] As a result, beginning in 2020 and 2021, the U.S. government barred Hungarian passport-holders who were not born in Hungary from obtaining ESTA pre-travel authorizations.[75][76] In August 2023, the U.S. government imposed additional restrictions on Hungary's participation in the VWP: the ESTA validity period for Hungarian passport-holders was reduced from two years to one year, and each ESTA on a Hungarian passport would be valid for only one entry to the United States.[73][72]

Of the 19 road map countries listed in 2007,[32] 12 have been admitted to the VWP. As of 2024, the U.S. government cited six countries aspiring to join the VWP:[77]

In 2014, the European Union pressured the United States to extend the Visa Waiver Program to its five member states that were not yet included in it (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania).[78] In November 2014, the Bulgarian government announced that it would not ratify the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership unless the United States lifted the visa requirement for its nationals.[79] Due to incomplete U.S. reciprocity, in March 2017 the European Parliament approved a non-binding resolution calling on the European Commission to suspend the visa exemption for U.S. nationals to travel the Schengen Area.[80] On May 2, 2017, the European Commission decided not act on the resolution and hoped to restart full visa reciprocity negotiations for the remaining EU member states with the new U.S. administration.[81] In 2019, as mentioned above, Poland, which had been the last Schengen Area country not yet included in the VWP, was admitted to the program. In October 2020, the European Parliament repeated its request for the European Commission to suspend the visa exemption for U.S. nationals, and in March 2021, it filed a judicial action against the European Commission for its failure to act on the subject.[82] In 2021, Croatia was admitted to the VWP before joining the Schengen Area in 2023. On March 15, 2023, Democratic senator Dick Durbin introduced a bill that would allow including Romania in the VWP regardless of the program requirements.[83][84] In September 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the judicial action brought by the European Parliament, ruling that the European Commission was not obligated to suspend the visa exemption for U.S. nationals.[82] In December 2023, during a visit to the United States, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that Romania's entry into the U.S. visa-free program would be announced in 2024, ahead of the 2025 deadline discussed with the U.S. representatives.[85]

As of 2024, three EU member states (Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania) are still not included in the VWP, and nationals of Hungary born outside Hungary are automatically denied ESTA due to a passport fraud scheme described above.[3]

The Visa Waiver Program applies to all permanently inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa.

Citizens of freely associated states

Under Compacts of Free Association, citizens of the following countries may enter, reside, study and work in the United States indefinitely without a visa. These benefits are granted to citizens from birth or independence, and to naturalized citizens who have resided in the respective country for at least five years, excluding those who acquired citizenship by investment.[125][126]

Sejak tahun 2014, pemerintah Jepang memberikan kemudahan bagi pemegang paspor Indonesia, untuk memasuki Jepang dengan Visa Waiver program. Namun Visa Waiver ini hanya diberikan kepada pemegang paspor elektronik. Untuk pemegang paspor biasa, masih harus mengurus Visa sebelum berangkat ke Jepang.

Apa keuntungan dari visa waiver..? Jika paspor anda telah terdaftar dalam visa waiver, maka selama jangka waktu visa waiver tersebut, anda dapat berangkat kapan saja ke Jepang tanpa mengurus visa terlebih dahulu. Tinggal cari tiket dan berangkat.

Tapi visa waiver ini ada keterbatasannya. Pertama, anda hanya bisa berkunjung ke Jepang selama 15 hari. Jika ingin berkunjung lebih dari 15 hari, anda tetap harus mengurus visa reguler di VFS JVAC, meskipun sudah punya visa waiver. Kedua, masa berlakunya hanya tiga tahun atau sesuai masa berlaku paspor (mana yang lehuh dahulu). Ketiga, dari banyak pengalaman dan cerita pemegang e-paspor dengan visa waiver ini, pemeriksaan imigrasi saat tiba di Jepang lebih ketat, banyak pertanyaan, diminta bukti pesanan akomodasi, di cek jumlah uang yang dibawa, bahkan cukup banyak cerita pemegang visa waiver yang akhirnya ditolak masuk Jepang dan diharuskan kembali ke Indonesia dengan penerbangan berikut. Mungkin ini disebabkan tidak diperlukannya bukti kecukupan keuangan atau bukti pekerjaan saat pengajuan visa waiver, berbeda dengan pengajuan visa reguler yang diminta bukti kecukupan dana saat aplikasi.

PENGURUSAN VISA WAIVER

Bagaimana prosedur pengurusan visa waiver? Sangat mudah kok.. Syaratnya paspor anda sudah paspor elektronik, yang memiliki chip data biometrik. Prosedurnya:

PENGURUSAN VISA WISATA REGULER

Bagaimana jika anda tidak punya paspor elektronik, masih paspor biasa? Atau sudah punya visa waiver, tapi mau berkunjung ke Jepang lebih dari 15 hari? Dalam hal ini anda harus mengajukan aplikasi visa wisata reguler.

Dulu, pengurusan visa reguler juga dilakukan di kedutaan Jepang. Tapi sejak 15 September 2017, aplikasi visa wisata hanya dapat dilakukan di VFS JVAC (Japan Visa Application Centre), Kuningan City Lt.1, Jakarta.

Untuk aplikasi visa Single Entry biayanya Rp 400.000, sedangkan untuk visa Multiple Entry biaya visa Rp 800.000.

Pengajuan multiple entry bisa diproses jika anda sudah pernah ke Jepang dalam 3 tahun terakhir, atau pernah ke negara seperti Amerika Serikat dan Inggris. Jika anda dinilai qualified, visa multiple entry bisa diberikan dengan masa berlaku 5 tahun, bisa lebih panjang dari visa waiver yang masa berlakunya 3 tahun.

Selain membayar biaya visa, pengurusan visa di VFS JVAC ini dikenakan biaya pemrosesan Rp 165.000 per paspor.

Syarat Dokumen untuk visa kunjungan sementara untuk tujuan wisata:

Bawa paspor dan dokumen-dokumen diatas ke VFS JVAC, Kuningan City Lt. 1, Jakarta.

Jam buka VFS JVAC untuk aplikasi visa setiap hari kerja antara jam 9:00-17:00. Anda dapat membuat janji terlebih dahulu untuk menghindari antrian panjang, namun bisa juga langsung datang tanpa membuat perjanjian. Perjanjian bisa dibuat secara online di website VFS JVAC: http://www.vfsglobal.com/japan/indonesia/Schedule-an-Appointment.html

Setibanya di VFS JVAC, anda akan mendapatkan nomor antrian. Tunggu nomor anda dipanggil. Jika nomor anda telah dipanggil, menuju counter dan serahkan paspor dan dokumen anda. Petugas akan memeriksa paspor dan dokumem, apabila ada kekurangan, aplikasi anda akan dikembalikan dan anda akan diminta melengkapi kekurangannya. Apabila semua lengkap, anda akan diminta melakukan pembayaran biaya visa dan biaya administrasi. Petugas akan memberikan tanda terima.

Proses visa di VFS JVAC sekitar 3-5 hari kerja. Anda bisa memonitor progres aplikasi visa di website VFS, dengan memasukan kode yang ada di tanda terima pengurusan visa.

Untuk pengambilan visa dapat dilakukan pada hari kerja mulai jam 1 siang. Pengurusan visa Jepang melalui VFS JVAC dapat diwakilkan oleh anggota keluarga ataupun agen wisata.

Dari pengalaman banyak teman, sangat jarang pemegang visa Jepang ditolak masuk di bandara, sementara pemegang visa waiver yang terkena deportasi cukup banyak terdengar.

Jadi mana yang lebih baik, visa waiver atau visa reguler?

Jika anda sudah cukup memiliki riwayat perjalan keluar negeri, visa waiver jauh lebih memudahkan dan menguntungkan. Tapi jika anda baru pertama kali keluar negeri, saran saya anda mengurus visa reguler, yang syarat pengajuannya mencakup bukti kemampuan keuangan, hal ini untuk membuktikan bahwa anda adalah wisatawan yang bonafid, mengurangi resiko kena random check dan resiko deportasi saat di bandara Jepang.

Nationals of neighboring jurisdictions

Separate from the Visa Waiver Program, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(4)(B) permits the Attorney General and the Secretary of State (acting jointly) to waive visa requirements for admission to the United States in nonimmigrant status for nationals of foreign contiguous territories or adjacent islands or for residents of those territories or islands who have a common nationality with those nationals. The regulations relating to such admissions can be found at 8 CFR 212.1.[121]

Under this provision, nationals of the following jurisdictions may travel to the United States without a visa:

Restrictions on the use of the Visa Waiver Program do not affect this class of travelers unless separately provided for by statute or regulation. For example, a Canadian citizen who has briefly overstayed a previous visit to the United States (by less than 180 days) will still not require a visa for future visits, while a VWP national who overstays will become ineligible for the VWP for life and will need a visa for future visits. ESTA is not required from British Overseas Territories citizens using one of the above waivers with the respective territory's passport, but it is required if they use the VWP with a British citizen passport.

Until 2003, this visa waiver was granted not only to nationals of those countries and territories, but also to permanent residents of Bermuda and Canada who were nationals of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations or Ireland.[121]

The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) enables most citizens or nationals of participating countries* to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa. Travelers must have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and meet all requirements explained below. If you prefer to have a visa in your passport, you may still apply for a visitor (B) visa.

Prior travel or dual nationality in certain countries

Since 2016, those who have previously been in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011, or in Cuba on or after January 12, 2021, or who are dual nationals of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Syria, are not eligible to travel under the VWP.[1] However, those who traveled to such countries for diplomatic, military, journalism, humanitarian or legitimate business purposes may have this ineligibility waived by the Secretary of Homeland Security.[11]

Applicants for admission under the Visa Waiver Program:[6]

Applicants should display social and economic ties which bind them to their country of origin or may be refused entry.[12]

Having been arrested or convicted does not in itself make a person ineligible to use the Visa Waiver Program. However, some U.S. embassies advise such persons to apply for a tourist visa even though there is no legal obligation to do so.[6]

Those who do not meet the requirements for the Visa Waiver Program must obtain a U.S. visitor visa from a U.S. embassy or consulate.[6]

Visitors under the VWP may stay for up to 90 days in the United States and cannot request an extension of the original allowed period of stay[6] (this practice is allowed to those holding regular visas).[13][14][15] However, VWP visitors may seek to adjust status on the basis of either marriage to a U.S. citizen or an application for asylum.[16]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers determine admissibility upon the traveler's arrival. If one seeks to enter the United States under the VWP and is denied entry by a CBP officer at a port of entry, there is no path to appeal or review of the denial of entry.[17]

Travelers can leave to neighboring jurisdictions (Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean), but will not be granted another 90 days after reentry in the United States; instead they are readmitted to the United States for the remaining days granted on their initial entry.[18] Transit through the United States is generally permitted, if the total time in the United States, Canada, Mexico and adjacent islands is less than 90 days. However, if for example the traveler is transiting the United States on the way to a 6-month stay in Canada, the VWP cannot be used, as the total time in the United States, Canada, Mexico and adjacent islands will be over 90 days. In this case the traveler should apply for a B-1/B-2 visa, or a transit visa.[6]

There are restrictions on the type of employment-related activities allowed. Meetings and conferences in relation to the travelers' profession, line of business or employer in their home country are generally acceptable, but most forms of "gainful employment" are not. There are however poorly-classifiable exceptions such as persons performing professional services in the United States for a non-U.S. employer, and persons installing, servicing and repairing commercial or industrial equipment or machinery pursuant to a contract of sale.[19] Performers (such as actors and musicians) who plan on performing live or taping scenes for productions in their country of origin, as well as athletes participating in an athletic event, are likewise not allowed to use the VWP for their respective engagements and are instead required to have an O or P visa prior to arrival. Foreign media representatives and journalists on assignment are required to have a nonimmigrant media (I) visa.[20]

Congress passed legislation in 1986 to create the Visa Waiver Program with the aim of facilitating tourism and short-term business visits to the United States, and allowing the United States Department of State to focus consular resources on addressing higher risks.[21] The United Kingdom became the first country to participate in the Visa Waiver Program in July 1988, followed by Japan in December 1988.[22] In July 1989, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany were added to the VWP.[23]

In 1991, more European countries joined the Program – Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, San Marino and Spain – as well as New Zealand (the first country from Oceania).[23] In 1993, Brunei became the second Asian country to be admitted to the Program.[24]

On April 1, 1995, Ireland was added to the VWP.[25] In 1996, Australia and Argentina (the first Latin American country) joined,[23] although Argentina was later removed in 2002.[26] On September 30, 1997, Slovenia was added.[23] On August 9, 1999, Portugal, Singapore and Uruguay joined the program,[27] although Uruguay was subsequently removed in 2003.[28]

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush administration decided to tighten entry requirements into the United States, as a result of which legislation was passed requiring foreign visitors entering under the Visa Waiver Program to present a machine-readable passport upon arrival starting from October 1, 2003, and a biometric passport from October 26, 2004. However, as a number of VWP countries still issued non-machine readable passports (for example, more than a third of French and Spanish passport holders held a non-machine readable version), the implementation of this rule was postponed to October 26, 2004, with the exception of Belgian nationals, as there were concerns about the security and integrity of Belgian passports.[29] Likewise, the biometric passport requirement was also postponed to October 26, 2005, only to be further postponed by another year to October 26, 2006 at the request of the European Union, which raised concerns about the number of participating countries which would have been able to make the deadline.[30] When the new rule came into force on that day, three countries (Andorra, Brunei and Liechtenstein) had not yet started issuing biometric passports.[21]

In November 2006, the U.S. government announced that plans for an "Electronic Travel Authorization" program (officially named "Electronic System for Travel Authorization") would be developed so that VWP travelers can give advance information on their travels to the United States. In return, they will be given authorization electronically to travel to the United States, although it does not guarantee admission to the United States. This program is modeled on the Electronic Travel Authority scheme that has been used in Australia for many years.[31]

Argentina's participation in the VWP was terminated in 2002 in light of the financial crisis taking place in that country and its potential effect on mass emigration and unlawful overstay of its nationals in the United States by way of the VWP. Uruguay's participation in the program was revoked in 2003 for similar reasons. While a country's political and economic standing does not directly determine its eligibility, it is widely believed that nationals of politically stable and economically developed nations would not have much incentive to illegally seek employment and violate their visa while in the United States, risks that consular officers seriously consider in approving or denying a visa.

After the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, both the newly admitted countries and EU agencies began intensive lobbying efforts to include those new countries in the VWP. The U.S. government initially responded to those efforts by developing bilateral strategies with 19 candidate countries known as the Visa Waiver road map process.[32] The U.S. government began to accept the possibility of departing from the original country designation criteria – which had been contained within immigration law per se – and to expand them by adding political criteria, with the latter being able to override the former. This development began first with Bill S.2844[33] which explicitly named Poland as the only country to be added to the VWP, and continued as an amendment to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S.2611), whose Sec. 413, Visa Waiver Program Expansion,[34] defined broader criteria that would apply to any EU country that provided "material support" to the multinational forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the definition of that "material support" would be met again only by Poland and Romania, a fact that was not favorably received by the other EU candidate countries. Ironically, Poland remained the only Central European country that was not a participating nation in the VWP until 2019, due to a visa refusal rate above the critical threshold of 3%.

During his visit to Estonia in November 2006, President Bush announced his intention "to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver program". In 2006, the Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Bill was introduced in the Senate but no action was taken and that bill, as well as a similar one introduced in the House the following year, died after two years of inactivity.[35] The bill would have directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a pilot program to expand the visa waiver program for up to five new countries that were cooperating with the United States on security and counterterrorism matters.[36]

A June 2007 Hudson Institute Panel stressed the urgency of the inclusion of Central Europe in the VWP: "An inexplicable policy that is causing inestimable damage to the United States with its new Central and Eastern European NATO allies is the region's exclusion from the visa waiver program. As Helle Dale wrote in the spring issue of European Affairs: "Meanwhile, the problem is fueling anti-U.S. antagonisms and a perception of capricious discrimination by U.S. bureaucrats ---and damping the visits to the United States of people from countries with whom Washington would like to improve commercial and intellectual ties. Meanwhile, horror stories abound from friends and diplomats from Central and Eastern Europe about the problems besetting foreigners seeking to visit the United States. In fact bringing up the subject of visas with any resident of those countries is like waving a red flag before a bull." Visa waiver must be satisfactorily addressed and resolved at long last."[37]

The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 allowed the inclusion of new countries in the VWP with a visa refusal rate up to 10% (up from the standard requirement of 3%) if they satisfied certain other conditions, from October 2008.[38] With the relaxed criteria, eight countries were added to the program: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea in November 2008,[39] and Malta in December 2008.[40] Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek called it "a removal of the last relict of Communism and the Cold War".[41] However, from July 2009, the authority to include countries with such higher visa refusal rate became conditioned on the implementation of a system capable of matching the entry and exit from the United States of travelers under the VWP using biometric identifiers.[38] As such system was not implemented, the visa refusal rate requirement returned to 3%.

Greece officially joined the program on April 5, 2010.[42][43]

On October 2, 2012, Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the inclusion of Taiwan into the program effectively as of November 1, 2012.[44] Only holders of passports with a national identification number can benefit from the visa waiver.[45]

In 2013 there was conflict over the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013 whose Senate version specified that satisfaction of the requirements regarding reciprocal travel privileges for U.S. nationals would be subject to security concerns.[46] Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the security language because it seemed to validate Israel's tendency to turn away Arab Americans without giving any reason. None of the other 37 countries in the visa waiver program had such an exemption.[47]

Chief Executive of Hong Kong Donald Tsang raised the issue of allowing holders of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports or British National (Overseas) passports to participate in the VWP during his visit to the United States in 2011, but proposals to allow this have not been successful.[48][49]

Hong Kong is the only jurisdiction with a higher Human Development Index than the United States whose citizens cannot enjoy the program. The visa refusal rate for Hong Kong dropped to 1.7% for HKSAR passport and 2.6% for British National (Overseas) passport in 2012.[50] Hong Kong met all VWP criteria but did not qualify at the time because it was not legally a separate country, despite having its own passports and independent judicial system, monetary system and immigration control. The former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, raised the issue with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during his visit to the United States in 2011 and was met with positive response.[51] On May 16, 2013, a bipartisan amendment bill was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee but not ratified into law. On August 10, 2015, the U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau, Clifford Hart, said during an interview with South China Morning Post that the visa waiver was "not happening anytime soon", as the Visa Waiver law required the participant to be a "sovereign state" and Hong Kong was not independent, thus ending the possibility of Hong Kong joining the program. He also denied that the failed lobbying effort of the HKSAR government on this issue was a result of the refusal of detaining Edward Snowden in 2013.[51]

Chile joined the VWP on March 31, 2014.[52]

As of December 2018, ESTA is no longer approved in real-time to qualifying passengers and passengers are required to apply no later than 72 hours before departure.[53]

In July 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher stated that "Poland would fully qualify for the Visa Waiver Program within 3 to 6 months after September 2019" depending on bureaucratic procedures.[54] On October 4, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the Department of State had formally nominated Poland for entry into the Visa Waiver Program.[55] On November 11, 2019 Poland officially joined the Program and became its 39th member.[56]

On February 12, 2021, U.S. Embassy in Croatia's Chargé d'Affaires Victoria Taylor announced on Twitter that the refusal rate for business and tourist visas in Croatia in 2020 dropped to 2.69%, marking a step forward for Croatia to join the VWP "in the near future." On August 2, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Croatia had been formally nominated to join the VWP.[57][58] On September 28, 2021, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas officially announced that Croatia would join the VWP before December 1, 2021.[59] Croatia joined the VWP on October 23, 2021.[60]

On July 6, 2023, the validity of new ESTA applications by nationals of Brunei was reduced to one year.[9]

On September 27, 2023, Israel was designated to join the VWP by November 30, 2023.[61] Israel joined the VWP on October 19, 2023.[62]

On September 24, 2024, Qatar was designated to join the VWP by December 1, 2024.[63] Qatar joined the VWP on November 21, 2024.[64]

Requirements for Using the Visa Waiver Program (VWP)

You must meet all the following requirements to travel to the United States on the VWP: