The U.S. Homeland Security is seriously thinking of including Israel for its visa waiver program that allows citizens to come to America without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days.
On Tuesday, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed there are four countries on the pipeline that are candidates for the visa waiver program and one of them is Israel.
“We have four candidates in the pipeline: Israel, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania,” Mayorkas said
“We’re very, very focused on the program,” he added, saying it provides significant economic and security benefits,” Mayorkas added.
Israel became a strong candidate for the program as part of the bilateral cooperation between the US and Israel forged during the White House meeting of President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last August.
Sources said to join the program, a country must meet requirements related to counterterrorism, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, document security, and border management.
At the moment there are already 40 countries enrolled in the program.
Currently, Israelis hoping to travel to the U.S., even briefly, must go through a lengthy visa application process.
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