The Romanian Embassy in the U.S. announced that Romania has met the Visa Waiver Program’s visitor visa refusal rate requirement, specifying in a Facebook post that the Department of State published on Wednesday the situation of the B1/B2 (business/tourism) visa refusal rate for the tax year 2024 (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024) and that Romania has fallen below the 3% threshold set by American legislation, thus meeting one of the main criteria for joining the program. According to the cited source, the B1/B2 visa refusal rate for the tax year 2024 is 2.61%.
The diplomatic mission notes that Romanian citizens filed 80,596 B1/B2 visa applications worldwide, almost double the number of applications in the previous tax year. U.S. diplomatic and consular offices granted over 78,000 B1/B2 visas, a record number for Romania.
„Romania’s accession process to the Visa Waiver Program was extremely fair and transparent, and Romania’s assessment by the U.S. authorities is almost complete. Romanians will be able to travel to the United States visa-free starting in 2025, giving this generation the chance to make the friendship with the American people even stronger and the opportunity to build an even more prosperous partnership,” said Andrei Muraru, Romania’s ambassador to the U.S.
