Key arguments
for Romania 's inclusion into the US Visa Waiver Program    

• Romania has been an ally of the United States since 2004 and is scheduled to join the European Union on January 1, 2007 .
• There is a double standard in the US Visa Regime with regard to its allies: the old NATO allies have benefited of the Visa Waiver Program since their membership, while the new allies do not benefit of it yet.
• It is hard to explain to the 22 million Romanians that they don't benefit from the same treatment as the citizens of the old US allies and to almost 2 million Romanian Americans that their relatives in Romania are discriminated compared with peoples of other European countries.
• Romania along with Poland and other new US allies have had an important and well recognized contribution in the US-led war on terror, with thousands of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan .
• It is hard to explain to the families of the Romanian soldiers fighting shoulder to shoulder with the American military in the war against terrorism that they are not treated like citizens from an ally countries.
• Romanian citizens and those from other Central European countries do not represent an immigration threat for the US ; this kind of threat comes from somewhere else.
• Romanians can already travel freely to the European Union countries, where this is part of the travel freedom and of the labor mobility.
• Romanians travel to the United States to see their relatives, to study, to do business or to simply visit US; denying them this kind of travel is and will be interpreted like a push away from the United States which they admire so much.
• Visa regulations are affecting negatively the bilateral business relations between Romania and US. The need for Romanian businessmen to wait weeks or even months to get American visa can be considered an important business barrier in the era of intense personal business exchanges and rapid transactions.
• The number of Romanian students in the US is declining due to visa difficulties while they prefer to go to universities in Europe where they do not encounter the visa barrier; this situation is weakening an important human bridge of future generations between Romania and the United States and the potential to affect the strong pro-American feelings in Romania .
• Cultural exchanges between Romania and the United States are affected by the US visa regime.
• Romania is known as one of the most pro-American countries in Europe . The discrimination in terms of US visa regime compared with the older European allies, at the same time with the European Union openness to the Romanian citizens, generates sentiments of frustration and is hard to understand by a nation with a strong pro-American feeling and who wants continue to have strong strategic relations with the United States .