Sep 27, 2023

mazel tov Israel

Mazel tov to Israel. The USA just announced that Israel has been approved to join the Visa Waiver Program.

As of November 30, Israelis will be able to travel to the USA without first applying for a visa and going through that entire cumbersome process.

I wonder if that will mean simply more travel for Israelis or if it will mean more Israelis traveling to the USA and never leaving....




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4 comments:

  1. Not leaving, of course, means the program will be shut down immediately. The only reason it *exists* is when there's no risk of that happening.

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  2. Bizarre. As a Canadian, I can't ever remember requiring a visa to travel to Israel or for Israelis to travel here. Unless it was necessary and just automatically granted?

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    1. I dont know what the arrangements were for canadians. for Americans you generally filled out the visa form on the plane and gave it in passport control. approval was pretty automatic. the other way was the bigger issue - Israelis traveling tot he US have to first make an appointment at the embassy to request a 10 year visa, pay fees, go through interviews and a lot of waiting and background checks until approved

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    2. Bizarre. Flying in from Toronto we just landed in Israel, went through passport control, got the little purple slip and went on to collect our luggage. On the way back, everyone got a Canada Customs form to declare what we were bringing into the country and that was it.

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