Washington is sharply limiting Budapest’s participation in its visa waiver program over security concerns
The US has restricted Hungary’s participation in its Visa Waiver Program (VWP) after the EU state allegedly failed to address security vulnerabilities raised by Washington, according to a statement released by the US embassy in Budapest on Tuesday.
The program allowed Hungarians to travel to the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa and only required an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which was valid for up to two years.
Under the new restrictions, the ESTA validity period for Hungarian passport holders has been reduced to only one year. Additionally, the validity of an ESTA for Hungarians will be limited to a single use.
According to the US embassy, the Hungarian government’s simplified naturalization process has allowed nearly one million people to obtain Hungarian citizenship between 2011 and 2020 “without adequate security measures in place to verify their identities.”
After coming to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban implemented a policy change that made it simpler for ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries such as Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine to obtain Hungarian citizenship.
The US, however, has described this policy as a “security vulnerability” and has insisted that Hungary install stringent identity verification mechanisms.
“Despite extensive efforts over many years by the U.S. government to avoid this outcome and resolve longstanding security issues arising from Hungary’s simplified naturalization process, the Hungarian government has opted not to address the concerns raised in order to fully meet VWP requirements,” the embassy wrote, stating that it now has no choice but to modify the VWP rules for all Hungarians.
The embassy noted that the changes will go into effect immediately and remain until Washington’s security concerns are addressed.
A US government official also told Reuters that the VWP modifications would only apply to Hungary and not the other 39 participating countries, but stressed that the move was only related to security concerns and was not a message about any other issues that have plagued US-Hungarian relations.
Budapest, in turn, has stressed that it will not disclose the data of Hungarians beyond its borders because doing so would put at risk those citizens’ security. “This is why President Biden’s administration is taking revenge on Hungarians with the new visa waiver limit,” said Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs.
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