Visa Waiver Program

To be eligible for a visa waiver under the VWP, the traveler seeking admission to the United States must be a national of a country that has been designated by the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, as a "program country". Permanent residents of designated countries who are not their nationals do not qualify for a visa waiver. The criteria for designation as program countries are specified in Section 217(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (). The criteria stress passport security, a visitor visa refusal rate below 3%, and a reciprocal visa waiver for U.S. nationals, among other requirements. As of 2026, nationals of 42 countries are eligible for entry into the United States without a visa under the VWP: ==Requirements==

Passport All visitors from VWP countries must hold a biometric passport. All travelers must have individual passports. It is not acceptable (for the VWP) for children to be included on a parent's passport. In principle, the passport must be valid for six months beyond the expected date of departure from the United States. However, the United States has agreements with a large number of countries to waive this requirement, including all VWP countries except Brunei. It is similar to Australia's Electronic Travel Authority system. The authorization is mandatory for participating VWP nationals before traveling to the United States, but as with formal visas this does not guarantee admission into the United States since final admission eligibility is determined at U.S. ports of entry by CBP officers. ESTA has an application fee of US$10.27, and if approved, an additional fee of $30 is charged, for a total of $40.27. An approved ESTA is valid for up to two years (one year for nationals of Brunei) or until the traveler's passport expires, whichever comes first, and is valid for multiple entries into the United States. When traveling to the United States by air or sea under the VWP with ESTA, the person must be traveling on a participating commercial carrier and hold a valid return or onward ticket, dated within 90 days. Prior travel or dual nationality in certain countries Since 2016, those who have previously been in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011, or in Cuba on or after January 12, 2021, or who are dual nationals of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan or Syria, are not eligible to travel under the VWP. Other requirements Applicants for admission under the Visa Waiver Program: Having been arrested or convicted does not in itself make a person ineligible to use the Visa Waiver Program. However, some U.S. embassies advise such persons to apply for a tourist visa even though there is no legal obligation to do so. However, VWP visitors may seek to adjust status on the basis of either marriage to a U.S. citizen or an application for asylum. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers determine admissibility upon the traveler's arrival. If one seeks to enter the United States under the VWP and is denied entry by a CBP officer at a port of entry, there is no path to appeal or review of the denial of entry. Travelers can leave to neighboring jurisdictions (Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean), but will not be granted another 90 days after reentry in the United States; instead they are readmitted to the United States for the remaining days granted on their initial entry. Transit through the United States is generally permitted, if the total time in the United States, Canada, Mexico and adjacent islands is less than 90 days. However, if for example the traveler is transiting the United States on the way to a 6-month stay in Canada, the VWP cannot be used, as the total time in the United States, Canada, Mexico and adjacent islands will be over 90 days. In this case the traveler should apply for a B-1/B-2 visa, or a transit visa. Performers (such as actors and musicians) who plan on performing live or taping scenes for productions in their country of origin, as well as athletes participating in an athletic event, are likewise not allowed to use the VWP for their respective engagements and are instead required to have an O or P visa prior to arrival. Foreign media representatives and journalists on assignment are required to have a nonimmigrant media (I) visa. ==History==

Congress passed legislation in 1986 to create the Visa Waiver Program with the aim of facilitating tourism and short-term business visits to the United States, and allowing the United States Department of State to focus consular resources on addressing higher risks. In July 1989, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany were added to the VWP. On April 1, 1995, Ireland was added to the VWP. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush administration decided to tighten entry requirements into the United States, as a result of which legislation was passed requiring foreign visitors entering under the Visa Waiver Program to present a machine-readable passport upon arrival starting from October 1, 2003, and a biometric passport from October 26, 2004. However, as a number of VWP countries still issued non-machine readable passports (for example, more than a third of French and Spanish passport holders held a non-machine readable version), the implementation of this rule was postponed to October 26, 2004, with the exception of Belgian nationals, as there were concerns about the security and integrity of Belgian passports. Likewise, the biometric passport requirement was also postponed to October 26, 2005, only to be further postponed by another year to October 26, 2006 at the request of the European Union, which raised concerns about the number of participating countries which would have been able to make the deadline. When the new rule came into force on that day, three countries (Andorra, Brunei and Liechtenstein) had not yet started issuing biometric passports. In November 2006, the U.S. government announced that plans for an "Electronic Travel Authorization" program (officially named "Electronic System for Travel Authorization") would be developed so that VWP travelers can give advance information on their travels to the United States. In return, they will be given authorization electronically to travel to the United States, although it does not guarantee admission to the United States. This program is modeled on the Electronic Travel Authority scheme that has been used in Australia for many years. Argentina's participation in the VWP was terminated in 2002 in light of the financial crisis taking place in that country and its potential effect on mass emigration and unlawful overstay of its nationals in the United States by way of the VWP. Uruguay's participation in the program was revoked in 2003 for similar reasons. While a country's political and economic standing does not directly determine its eligibility, it is widely believed that nationals of politically stable and economically developed nations would not have much incentive to illegally seek employment and violate their visa while in the United States, risks that consular officers seriously consider in approving or denying a visa. Road map After the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, both the newly admitted countries and EU agencies began intensive lobbying efforts to include those new countries in the VWP. The U.S. government initially responded to those efforts by developing bilateral strategies with 19 candidate countries known as the Visa Waiver road map process. The U.S. government began to accept the possibility of departing from the original country designation criteria – which had been contained within immigration law per se – and to expand them by adding political criteria, with the latter being able to override the former. This development began first with Bill S.2844 which explicitly named Poland as the only country to be added to the VWP, and continued as an amendment to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S.2611), whose Sec. 413, Visa Waiver Program Expansion, defined broader criteria that would apply to any EU country that provided "material support" to the multinational forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the definition of that "material support" would be met again only by Poland and Romania, a fact that was not favorably received by the other EU candidate countries. During his visit to Estonia in November 2006, President Bush announced his intention "to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver program". In 2006, the Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Bill was introduced in the Senate but no action was taken and that bill, as well as a similar one introduced in the House the following year, died after two years of inactivity. The bill would have directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a pilot program to expand the visa waiver program for up to five new countries that were cooperating with the United States on security and counterterrorism matters. A June 2007 Hudson Institute Panel stressed the urgency of the inclusion of Central Europe in the VWP: "An inexplicable policy that is causing inestimable damage to the United States with its new Central and Eastern European NATO allies is the region's exclusion from the visa waiver program. As Helle Dale wrote in the spring issue of European Affairs: "Meanwhile, the problem is fueling anti-U.S. antagonisms and a perception of capricious discrimination by U.S. bureaucrats ---and damping the visits to the United States of people from countries with whom Washington would like to improve commercial and intellectual ties. Meanwhile, horror stories abound from friends and diplomats from Central and Eastern Europe about the problems besetting foreigners seeking to visit the United States. In fact bringing up the subject of visas with any resident of those countries is like waving a red flag before a bull." Visa waiver must be satisfactorily addressed and resolved at long last." The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 allowed the inclusion of new countries in the VWP with a visa refusal rate up to 10% (up from the standard requirement of 3%) if they satisfied certain other conditions, from October 2008. With the relaxed criteria, eight countries were added to the program: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea in November 2008, and Malta in December 2008. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek called it "a removal of the last relict of Communism and the Cold War". However, from July 2009, the authority to include countries with such higher visa refusal rate became conditioned on the implementation of a system capable of matching the entry and exit from the United States of travelers under the VWP using biometric identifiers. On October 2, 2012, Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the inclusion of Taiwan into the program effective on November 1, 2012. Only holders of passports with a national identification number would benefit from the visa waiver. In 2013, there was conflict over the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013 whose Senate version specified that satisfaction of the requirements regarding reciprocal travel privileges for U.S. nationals would be subject to security concerns. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the security language because it seemed to validate Israel's tendency to turn away Arab Americans without giving any reason. None of the other 37 countries in the visa waiver program had such an exemption. Chief Executive of Hong Kong Donald Tsang raised the issue of allowing holders of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports or British National (Overseas) passports to participate in the VWP during his visit to the United States in 2011, but proposals to allow this were not successful. Hong Kong was the only jurisdiction with a higher Human Development Index than the United States whose citizens could not enjoy the program. The visa refusal rate for Hong Kong dropped to 1.7% for HKSAR passport and 2.6% for British National (Overseas) passport in 2012. Hong Kong met all VWP criteria but did not qualify because it was not legally a separate country, despite having its own passports and independent judicial system, monetary system and immigration control. In 2013, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to allow Hong Kong to qualify for the VWP as if it were a country, but it was not further considered. On August 10, 2015, the U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau, Clifford Hart, said during an interview with South China Morning Post that the visa waiver was "not happening anytime soon", as the Visa Waiver law required the participant to be a "sovereign state" and Hong Kong was not independent, thus ending the possibility of Hong Kong joining the program. He also denied that the failed lobbying effort of the HKSAR government on this issue was a result of the refusal of detaining Edward Snowden in 2013. Chile joined the VWP on March 31, 2014. In November 2014, the Bulgarian government announced that it would not ratify the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership unless the United States lifted the visa requirement for its nationals. Due to incomplete U.S. reciprocity, in March 2017 the European Parliament approved a non-binding resolution calling on the European Commission to suspend the visa exemption for U.S. nationals to travel the Schengen Area. On May 2, 2017, the European Commission decided not act on the resolution and hoped to restart full visa reciprocity negotiations for the remaining EU member states with the new U.S. administration. In December 2018, ESTA was no longer processed in real time, and travelers were advised to apply at least 72 hours before departure. In July 2019, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher stated that "Poland would fully qualify for the Visa Waiver Program within 3 to 6 months after September 2019" depending on bureaucratic procedures. On October 4, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the Department of State had formally nominated Poland for entry into the Visa Waiver Program. On November 11, 2019 Poland officially joined the Program and became its 39th member. On February 12, 2021, U.S. Embassy in Croatia's Chargé d'Affaires Victoria Taylor announced on Twitter that the refusal rate for business and tourist visas in Croatia in 2020 dropped to 2.69%, marking a step forward for Croatia to join the VWP "in the near future." On August 2, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Croatia had been formally nominated to join the VWP. On September 28, 2021, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas officially announced that Croatia would join the VWP before December 1, 2021. Croatia joined the VWP on October 23, 2021. In September 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed the judicial action brought by the European Parliament, ruling that the European Commission was not obligated to suspend the visa exemption for U.S. nationals. On July 6, 2023, the validity of new ESTA applications by nationals of Brunei was reduced to one year. Israel joined the VWP on October 19, 2023. Qatar joined the VWP on November 21, 2024. On January 10, 2025, it was announced that Romania would join the VWP by March 31, 2025. However, on March 25, 2025, Romania's entry was put on hold amid further security review. After the conclusion of the review, on May 2, 2025, the designation of Romania to the VWP was rescinded. On July 28, 2025, it was announced that Argentina would rejoin the VWP, but the process was paused in September 2025. Hungary In October 2017, U.S. officials discovered a massive passport fraud scheme in Hungary, in which hundreds of non-Hungarians obtained genuine Hungarian passports. A U.S. Department of Homeland Security report (obtained by the Washington Post and reported in May 2018) showed that of approximately 700 non-Hungarians who had obtained the passports, 85 had attempted to travel to the United States under false identites, 65 had been admitted to the United States through the VWP, and (as of October 2017) approximately 30 remained in the United States despite the efforts of U.S. authorities to locate and deport them. More than a million people obtained Hungarian citizenship through the program. U.S. and Hungarian officials engaged in a dialogue for several years on resolving the security risks, but Hungarian authorities failed to resolve the issues to the U.S. government's satisfaction. In August 2023, the U.S. government imposed additional restrictions on Hungary's participation in the VWP: the ESTA validity period for Hungarian passport-holders was reduced from two years to one year, and each ESTA on a Hungarian passport would be valid for only one entry to the United States. Aspiring countries Of the 19 road map countries listed in 2007, Turkey, the remaining road map country listed in 2007, was no longer cited as an aspiring country in 2024. Chile, Croatia and Qatar were not listed as road map countries in 2007 but were later admitted to the VWP. Cyprus, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Vatican City had a visa refusal rate lower than 3% in fiscal year 2025, satisfying a critical requirement to join the VWP. ==U.S. territories==

The Visa Waiver Program applies to all permanently inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands Although the U.S. Visa Waiver Program also applies to the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and therefore nationals of VWP countries may travel to these territories with an ESTA, both territories have an additional visa waiver program for certain nationalities. The Guam–CNMI Visa Waiver Program, first enacted in October 1988 and periodically amended, permits nationals of 12 countries to travel to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands for up to 45 days, and nationals of China to travel to the Northern Mariana Islands for up to 14 days, for tourism or business, without the need to obtain a U.S. visa. American Samoa U.S. visa policy does not apply to American Samoa, as it has its own entry requirements and maintains control of its own borders. If required, a visitor permit must be obtained from the American Samoa Department of Legal Affairs. Holders of a valid U.S. visa or green card, nationals of Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and countries in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program may apply online for a visitor permit for a stay of up to 30 days, for a fee of US$40. Nationals of Samoa may apply online for a visitor permit for a stay of up to 10 days, for a fee of $10. Other visitors need to obtain a visitor permit through a local sponsor, who must apply for it in person at the Immigration Office of the Department of Legal Affairs. ==Statistics==

Admissions Visa refusal rate To qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, a country must have had a visa refusal rate of less than 3% for the previous year. Overstay rate The table below shows the overstay rate, which is the portion of visitors arriving under the Visa Waiver Program who remained in the United States longer than the maximum allowed stay of 90 days. Some of these visitors later left the United States or legalized their immigration status. ==Other visa waivers==

Nationals of neighboring jurisdictions Separate from the Visa Waiver Program, permits the Attorney General and the Secretary of State (acting jointly) to waive visa requirements for admission to the United States in nonimmigrant status for nationals of foreign contiguous territories or adjacent islands or for residents of those territories or islands who have a common nationality with those nationals. The regulations relating to such admissions can be found at . Under this provision, nationals of the following jurisdictions may travel to the United States without a visa: • Nationals of the Bahamas do not need a visa to travel to the United States if they apply for admission at a U.S. preclearance facility located in the Bahamas. Applicants 14 years of age or older must present a certificate issued by the Royal Bahamas Police Force indicating no criminal record. • British Overseas Territories citizens of Bermuda do not need a visa to visit the United States under most circumstances for up to 180 days. In addition, under the USMCA (and earlier NAFTA), they may obtain authorization to work under a simplified procedure. • British Overseas Territories citizens of the Cayman Islands do not need a visa if they travel directly from the territory to the United States and present a certificate issued by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service indicating no criminal record. Under the USMCA (and earlier NAFTA), they may also obtain authorization to work under a simplified procedure. • British Overseas Territories citizens of the Turks and Caicos Islands do not need a visa if they travel directly from the territory to the United States and present a certificate issued by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force indicating no criminal record. ==See also==