House Tightens Visa Waiver Program

The bill follows last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, as well as last week’s massacre at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

The VWP, created in 1986, now allows citizens from all 38 participating countries who have a valid passport and pass security screenings to travel to the USA for up to 90 days for business or tourism without obtaining a visa.

The proposed Bill also contains provisions under which U.S. can remove countries from the visa waiver program if they do not cooperate with law enforcement and the intelligence community.

Johnson has introduced a bill to strengthen the current visa waiver program.

Visitors to the USA from countries like Italy may now have to apply for a visa. This comes after the House of Representatives passed their own version of the bill. The bill would also require countries to be able to confirm that such documents are legitimate when they are scanned.

“It’s critically important that we make sure that if there has been that kind of travel overseas that we do background checks and we make sure that we know who is coming into the United States in order to keep us safe”, Noem said.

People who have visited Iran and Sudan – which the United States accuses of supporting terrorism – would also need a visa.

What is the Visa Waiver Program?

The Obama administration has launched a review of the fiancé visa, officially classified as a K-1 visa, in the departments of State and Homeland Security for “possible program enhancements”, a Homeland Security spokeswoman said.

Speaker Paul Ryan praised the bill’s passage, writing in a statement:”today, we took a major step forward in our effort to prevent foreign terrorists from reaching our shores”.

The 38 countries who participate in the visa waiver program with the United States would be “required to share counterterror information with the US or face expulsion from the program. While my colleagues and I are doing what we can to protect our country from terrorists, the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, should be an alarming wakeup call that the president must stop putting his personal political agenda before the nation’s safety and immediately implement a strategy to defeat ISIS”.

Kaine contends that, despite views that America will let tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into the country, the US actually is doing a good job limiting the influx.

Finally, it’s not clear that tightening the visa waiver program will hamper many extremists. Ryan has argued that idea is a “distraction” and that the broader focus should be on measures aimed at fighting terrorism.

How Does Refugee Screening Compare With The Visa Process?