The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday said it did not know when the US government would grant Taiwanese visa-waiver status.
“We do not have a timetable. We are aware that Taiwan has met several requirements, but there are still a couple of agreements that needed to be made,” AIT spokesperson Sheila Paskman said by telephone.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) as saying in an interview that Taiwan was likely to be identified as a candidate country for the US visa waiver program (VWP) by the end of this year and receive visa-free privilege next year.
The waiver program allows eligible nationals from 36 member countries to visit the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa.
“All we can do is to nominate Taiwan for the program, but it’s the [US] Department of Homeland Security who ultimately decides who gets the visa waiver,” Paskman said.
“Taiwan has been moving forward on this. Taiwan is getting very close to getting its nomination, but we just don’t have a timeline whatsoever,” she said.
A cable dated Oct 5, 2009, released by WikiLeaks last month showed the US does not identify candidate countries for the waiver program.
According to the cable, AIT Director William Stanton said that “Taiwan has pressed for clarification on what threshold must be met before they can be considered an official ‘candidate’ for VWP. We have responded that the US no longer is identifying ‘roadmap’ countries, but that we will evaluate individual candidacies on a case-by-case basis.”
Asked if the US still identifies candidate countries, AIT spokesman Christopher Kavanagh said that a number of years ago the US had identified 12 or 13 countries that were interested in joining the program and provided them with “road maps” to work toward visa waiver memberships, but added: “That was the past. They don’t have that [now].”
Any engagement relating to visa waiver program membership “is considered on a country-by-country basis as appropriate,” Kavanagh said, adding that Taiwan has not met all the legal requirements.
In the China Times interview, Yang said Taiwan had met the three basic requirements for inclusion in the program: A rejection rate of Taiwanese visa applications to the US that was less than 3 percent; all Taiwanese applying for passports for the first time must apply in person, and Taiwanese have biometric electronic passports.
Taiwan was also close to completing negotiations with the US on an agreement to share information on lost or stolen passports and other efforts required to meet the program’s threshold, Yang said, in reference to agreements on border controls against suspected terrorists or felons.
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