Greece Expected To Get Visa-Free Travel To U.S.

Greece is soon expected to obtain visa waiver status as it is considered only a matter of time to join the United States’ Visa Waiver Programme (VWP), according to Europolitics, European affairs daily updated website.

According to Europolitics, no official announcement has come from Washington yet but an entry date is likely to be chosen in early February to coincide with a visit to Washington by a senior Greek government official -possibly Prime Minister Yiorgos Papandreou- who would be on the first flight to arrive after admission to the program.

Greece is the 23rd European Union member state to be added to the United States’ Visa Waiver Program, which allows travellers to stay up to 90 days in the U.S. without a visa.

Europolitics said that the inclusion of all 27 E.U. member states in the VWP remains a priority for the European Commission.

Next on the list of membership, following Greece, would most likely be Cyprus, which should enter once it begins producing biometric passports, a pre-requisite for the VWP.

However, the entry of the remaining three E.U. countries -Bulgaria, Poland and Romania- remains barred since the percentage of their citizens that have applied for a U.S. visa and were rejected exceeds the three percent threshold laid out in the VWP.