Croatia one step away from US visa waiver, says daily

ZAGREB, Sept 7 (Hina) – Visas for the US, if another 2,000 are issued this month, will become history, Vecernji List daily said on Monday, adding that Croatia was a step away from US visas being waived.

The Croatian Foreign Ministry has asked civil servants and people in the banking and business sectors to apply for US visas and they will almost certainly be approved, which will help the rejection rate to drop below 3% by the end of this month, which is the last requirement Croatia must meet, the paper said.

Croatia was a step away from meeting that requirement before the coronavirus pandemic stopped travel and reduced the number of visa applications to a minimum. The ministry’s call is a way to make up for that.

There is little time as Americans wrap up the fiscal year during which they take the rejection rate into account on September 30.

If Croatia makes that date, visas will be waived next year, but if it misses it, now, when we are a step away from achieving the goal it has been waiting for since declaring independence, it will enter a new fiscal year and the counting of rejections will begin again.

In order to achieve that goal which now seems very likely, it was necessary to have good political relations and meet technical standards, including technical equipment, functioning border services, security data processing and sharing, and passports which meet the highest standards, the Vecernji List said.