Romania recorded the lowest visa refusal rate for the US

In 2023, Romania recorded the lowest visa refusal rate for the US in the history of the bilateral relationship with the United States, of 8.79%, according to the Embassy of Romania in the US.

Ambassador Andrei Muraru stated that “if everything goes according to plan and no major difficulties arise, we can estimate that Romania will be part of the American visa waiver program next year”.

“8.79% – the visa refusal rate for the USA in 2023, the lowest level in the entire history of the bilateral relationship between Romania and the United States. Accelerated rate of decrease in the last three years and the most important decrease in percentage terms among the three EU candidate states,” says the Romanian Embassy to the United States.

The US State Department published on Wednesday, January 17 of this year, the situation of the refusal rate of B1/B2 visas for the fiscal year 2023 ( 1 October 2022-30 September 2023). Thus, Romania recorded a refusal rate of 8.79%.

The refusal rate recorded during 2023 is the lowest in the entire history of relations with the US. Also, Romania is in an accelerated decline in the last three years (17.03% in 2021, 12.61% in 2022), with a decrease of 3.82% compared to the previous fiscal year. At the same time, among the three candidate countries from the European Union that are not part of the Visa Waiver program, Romania records the most important decrease in percentage terms (the Republic of Cyprus decreased from 6.22% to 4.48%, and Bulgaria recorded a growth from 10% in 2022 to 11.61% last year).

“There is still a long way to go, but we are very optimistic because there is a real political intention to include Romania in the Visa Waiver Program, and both governments are fully committed to meeting all the requirements of the visa waiver program. If everything goes according to plan and no major difficulties arise, we can estimate that Romania will be part of the American visa exemption program next year”, stated Andrei Muraru, the Romanian ambassador to the United States“, according to the embassy’s statement.