The Romanian government on Thursday urged Romanians to renew their expired US visas as part of efforts to join the Visa Waiver Program, which allows visa-free travel to the United States, euractiv.com informs. The campaign, entitled “Qualify Romania in the Visa Waiver Program”, will be promoted through TV, radio and online platforms. Romanians with visas that have expired in the last four years are encouraged to renew them by 30 September. The Romanian authorities aim to meet the technical criteria required to join the programme before the end of the US fiscal year 2024. A key criterion is to achieve a refusal rate of less than 3% for US B1/B2 visas – business and tourist visas – issued to Romanian citizens during this fiscal year. Romanians, Bulgarians, and Cypriots are the only EU citizens still needing a visa to enter the US. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu believes mobilising as many Romanians as possible for this campaign will enable visa-free travel to the US starting next year. There are indications that Romania is close to meeting the 3% refusal rate. This campaign serves as a “safety net” to ensure that all previous efforts are not in vain, according to Valentin Vatajelu, the national coordinator for Romania’s accession to the Visa Waiver Program. Last month, Romanian Ambassador to the U.S., Andrei Muraru, announced that Romania is in the final stages of meeting the Visa Waiver Program’s admission criteria. He noted that the rejection rate for the last fiscal year, ending October 1, 2023, was over 8%, but expressed optimism that it could fall below 3% this year. The US Embassy has issued a substantial number of visas this year, with estimates approaching 50,000 to 60,000. Muraru mentioned in an interview with Agerpres that there is ”a high volume of applications from both private and governmental sectors, and we have a very good chance”.
June is the richest month. The most awaited two weeks in my annual festival pilgrimage. The route starts with Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), followed by Italy’s (and the world’s) most comprehensive festival for restored and archival film: Il Cinema Ritrovato. To shake up the traditional article on the two, I’ll start with the […]
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Roughly 70% of Romanians are “very” or “moderately” concerned about how AI accesses and uses their data, according to the latest survey conducted by RoCoach in partnership with Novel Research between May and June 2025. Distrust in automated decision-making and the demand for regulation are becoming more pronounced, as Romania rolls out major digitalization projects […]
The Armenian Street Festival returns for a 9th edition between August 1 and 3, 2025, in the “Dimitrie Brândză” Botanical Garden in Bucharest. The festival brings into focus the living heritage of the Armenian community in Romania and the diaspora. According to the organizers, this year’s edition aims to strengthen the Bucharest–Chișinău–Yerevan cultural axis, articulated […]
The Romanian mergers and acquisitions market registered a total of 122 announced transactions in the first half of 2025, with a value exceeding EUR 2.7 billion, marking a slight increase of 6% in volume and 4% in value compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis by George Ureche, partner at PwC Romania. […]
