The Ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murilloinstalled this Monday in Bogotá the first inter-institutional work table that seeks to concentrate the efforts of the Colombian state to access the visa waiver programor Visa Waiver Program (VWP for its acronym in English).
(Read also: Migration, a difficult but highly relevant issue in US and Colombian relations)
The board will be made up of officials from the Foreign Ministry, Colombian Migration, Prosecutor’s Office, National Police and Civil Aeronautics.
Since coming to power last year, the government of President Gustavo Petro has made this one of its priorities on the bilateral agenda with USA.
The installation of the table coincides with the trip to the country of the US Assistant Secretary of State for Migrants and Refugees, Juliet Valls Noyesfor various meetings with government officials from Gustavo Petro and other international and non-governmental organizations and in which this issue will surely be discussed.
The VWP is a status that is granted to citizens of certain countries in the world, which eliminates the visa requirement to travel to USA for tourism or business purposes.
It was created through a law of Congress that was approved in 1986 and currently covers the citizens of 40 countries around the world. These countries, in turn, offer the same authority to Americans who want to visit.
The first to enter this list was the United Kingdom in 1986 and the last Croatia in 2021. These are mostly European countries, some Asian (South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), more Australia, Iceland and New Zealand.
The only Latin American included in the list is Chile. Not even Mexicoits neighbor and main business partner, is part of this group.
Although it is a decision that falls on the current president, Joe Biden, the law establishes a very rigorous and extensive process that goes through the review of various agencies of the US government. And it also includes very specific criteria that the country must meet before being considered.
These include good law enforcement and security related data sharing with the United States, issuance of ePassports, having a visitor (B) visa refusal rate of less than three percent, timely passport notification lost and stolen, both blank and issued, and maintaining high standards for anti-terrorism, law enforcement, border control, and document security.
Although all of these criteria are complex and difficult to meet, the visa refusal rate has in the past been one of the main barriers to granting this status to Colombians. At this time it is not clear what that percentage of rejection is. But the country, not even in the best moments, has managed to reach that 3 percent.
In addition, the law requires that this level be maintained for at least two consecutive years. In other words, if at this time the rate is higher than 3 percent, it would first have to be lowered to that number and then sustained for at least two fiscal years.
The last government that took this process seriously was that of Juan Manuel Santos that he even officially asked the administration of Barack Obama in 2014.
Before that, say sources involved in the effort, the rejection rate was 10 percent, and after much work it was brought down to around 4 percent.
In addition to the fact that the magic number was never reached, there were always other obstacles, such as the issue of border control and the presence of active terrorist groups in the country that ended up derailing the initiative.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
TIME CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
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