US Ambassador: 81% Of Romanian Applicants Received Non-Immigrant Visas For USA In 2010

"America welcomes Romanians and we encourage travel to the United States for tourism, business and study. I'm pleased to report that last year 29,000 Romanians received non-immigrant visas for the United States, an increase of almost 3,000 over the prior year," said the ambassador.

He added that the electronic visa application introduced in 2010 is used "with great success" by every visa applicant.

"One service that we added this year is for those who make a mistake in completing the online form - which is unfortunately about 15% of those who apply - we now contact those applicants in advance of their appointments to assist them in making the necessary corrections before they come out to Baneasa for their appointments. This added customer service has reduced wait times and the need for applicants to make more than one trip to the Consular Section at the Embassy," said the ambassador.

The minimum refusal rate required to join the Visa Waiver Program is, according to current legislation, 3%.

Ambassador Gitenstein said anyone wishing to travel to the USA in the coming period should make appointments for their visa applications as soon as possible, because the service is busy with the holidays approaching.

"Of course we've also moved into our new Embassy, which features a state of the art Consular Section. Our waiting room is spacious and we can now handle up to 100 applicants at a time. With the electronic form as well as some other efficiencies we've implemented, overall time spent at the Embassy has been greatly reduced. Now you can get through the process in less than an hour," he said.

The ambassador pointed out that rejected applicants may reapply for visas as many times as they want, but the U.S. authorities "strongly discourage this."

"We know that situations do change and if your situation does change, you should reapply, but it should be a substantial change in your condition and you're going to see this message reflected in these materials," he explained.

The ambassador made these remarks during the launch of the "U.S. Visa" information campaign. The event was organized by the Romanian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Embassy. The campaign was launched in 2010 and will continue this year.

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