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The government made the decision to bear the cost of tourist and business travel visas in the United States for a certain category of employees from the public system, respectively for those from the national security and public order system, aiming, among other things, to accelerate the achievement of the objective of a refusal rate below 3% on the part of the USA as a mandatory condition for Romania's entry into the Visa Waiver program, declared the spokesman of the Executive, Mihai Constantin, when asked if the respective measure is not discriminatory.
"It is a decision of the Government to bear the cost of B1, B2 visas, respectively for tourism and business travel in the United States, for a certain category of employees from the public system and, more precisely, from the national security and public order system. This decision comes as a result of a context that I think we all know, as desired by foreign policy, let's say, Romanians are familiar with Romania's efforts and with the success that we totally want to be accepted in the Schengen Area. Also, there are two more pillars, namely the Visa Waiver for travel to the United States and, overall, a criterion that would strengthen Romania's position from an economic point of view around the globe would be OECD accession. Well, as regards these visas that you mentioned, this availability was called upon, because from this layer of public servants and employees in the budget system there are also many trips to the United States, based on the partnership we have and the contacts we have," declared Mihai Constantin.
As an additional argument, he added that a criterion for granting a United States visa is the establishment and proof of social and economic ties with the country of origin.
He reminded that "other states in the region" have resorted to a similar mechanism and joined the Visa Waiver program in the meantime.
The spokesman of the Executive also explained that the Romanian state bears the expenses related to obtaining visas for the USA only for the listed state employees, and not for their families.
According to the information, this measure was intended to strengthen the strategic partnership with the USA
