Johnson and Walesa Talk Visa Requirements
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23- Lech Walesa expressed his support Wednesday morning for including Poland in a program that would allow its citizens to enter the United States without a visa.
“We are ashamed in Poland that the visa obstacle still exists,” Walesa said in a meeting with Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), whose legislation would include Poland in the Visa Waiver Program, which currently allows the citizens of 27 countries, mostly in Western Europe, to enter the United States.
“I think it is a matter of fairness and respect that we treat Poland like the rest of the NATO countries,” said Johnson, whose district includes a sizable proportion of Polish-Americans.
Johnson introduced her bill in light of a high number of Polish visa requests being rejected. She argues that the rate is unnecessarily high because of State Department fears, which she believes are unwarranted, that visitors will overstay their visas. This particularly applies to young people, she said.
The two met in Johnson’s Capitol Hill office to discuss Polish-American relations, international relations and how to strengthen Poland’s case to enter the program. Johnson’s bill is currently in a House subcommittee.
Walesa, the former Polish president, said Poles are ashamed the visa issue still exists. He said he cannot understand why two nations with such strong historic relations are separated by this issue.
To strengthen their case, Johnson asked Walesa to push to upgrade Poland’s passport system so it will comply with impending U.S. regulations regarding machine-readable passports.
Walesa said he agrees with the new regulations, which he said provide necessary security. But he admits Poland lags in developing a system and said he would understand if Congress holds it against them.
“To any single objection raised to the amendment to the visa waiver program I could bring up at least 10 argumentations against,” Walesa said.
Johnson introduced a non-binding congressional resolution in February to urge the State and Homeland Security Departments to include Poland in the waiver program.
“The vibes that were coming back is, this is a very big issue and that there’s going to be a lot of opposition,” Johnson said.
On March 11, she submitted her bill to designate Poland as a visa waiver country.
“A legislative initiative shows more determination to the administration,” she said.
If the bill becomes law, Polish citizens will require only a passport to visit the United States for up to 90 days.
Johnson said she is optimistic the bill will pass but expects it will not be dealt with until the new Congress begins next year. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
Most major U.S. allies in Europe are included in the visa waiver program. A primncipal requirement for inclusion in the program is that fewer three percent of the country’s citizens applying for non-immigrant visas be rejected. While Poland is over three percent, according to the State Department, Johnson said that “a lot of the recent data is skewed.” Johnson’s bill would override the prerequisite. A second requirement is reciprocal treatment of U.S. citizens, which Poland met in 1991, when it repealed its visa requirement for American visitors. Additionally, Poland must comply with the updated passport system.
“This is a very important issue to the Polish-American Community,” said Andre Blaszczynski, President of the Polish American Foundation of Connecticut, in a phone interview. “You can go visit there and they treat you very well, they’re very hospitable; the trouble is, it’s not that easy to simply invite people back for a return visit.”
He added: “A lot of visas are rejected, and I think to a large extent arbitrarily.”
He said this issue upsets many Poles and Polish Americans because they feel the longstanding positive relations between the two countries should entitle Poland to treatment comparable to America’s other European allies.
Blaszczynski said he hopes Johnson’s and Walesa’s meeting “will put some life into this effort.”
