Ambassador Zuckerman: U.S. will not wave visas for Romanians too soon

The United States will not lift the visa regime for Romanians too soon, said the U.S. Ambassador in Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman in an interview to “Ziarul de Iasi”, arguing that the rejection rate of visas required by the Romanians is currently 10%, when it should be 3%.

Adrian Zuckerman said he will collaborate with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and PM Ludovic Orban to reduce this rate, but mentioned he could not say if visas will be lifted in the coming 5 or 10 years.

The U.S. Ambassador had a few recommendations to Romania if its citizens want to travel to the U.S. without visas: the economy must grow, the fight against corruption must go on, while the human trafficking must be wiped out. The American diplomat said that the human trafficking is disgusting and the fight against it is one of the highest priorities.

Zuckerman further told the interview that Romania was known as having ‘an endemic corruption culture’, adding that the U.S. pledged to help Justice minister Catalin Predoiu with everything is needed to counter corruption and they will have no tolerance to corruption.

“In the last four years things have gone in a wrong direction in Romania”, said the diplomat.

“We have a common programme with minister Predoiu and we’ll have no tolerance to corruption”, he added.