U.S. Says Korea Visa Waivers Unlikely

It has been confirmed that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) delivered its opinion to the House of Representatives stating that it is unlikely for Korea to be a member of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP) for the time being.

According to the Korean embassy in the U.S. on September 7, the GAO said in the report submitted to the House of Representatives in July, “Many countries including the Republic of Korea and Poland are seeking membership in the VWP, but these countries are not likely to gain VWP membership in the near future due to their high visa refusal rates.” This report is made based on an audit conducted by the GAO, an organization under the U.S. Congress and the equivalent of the Board of Audit and Inspection in Korea. The audit was conducted for 10 months from September 2005 to June 2006 on the State Department, the Departments of Homeland Security, and the U.S. embassies in the Republic of Korea and Poland.

The Korean government has pushed to become a member of the VWP, which enables citizens of member countries to travel to and stay in the U.S. for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has recently announced that the U.S. visa refusal rate of the Korean people was totaled at 3.5 percent from October 2005 to July 2006, and that this was not low enough to meet the U.S. requirement of less than three percent.

Meanwhile, the report showed that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill said in May of this year, “Expanding membership of VWP to include the Republic of Korea is one of my goals.” Also, the Immigration Reform Act of 2006 that has passed in the Senate also contains suggestion that countries that have contributed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be included in the members of the VWP.

srkim@donga.com