Romania, US To Sign Deal on Curbing Crimes

Romania and the US are to sign an agreement on cooperation in the prevention of grave crimes such as terrorist offences and will exchange relevant information in this regard, according to media reports.

Among others, the agreement allows mutual access to the national systems for identifying fingerprints and to DNA-related analysis files.

By concluding this agreement, Romania meets another of the technical criteria required by the Visa Waiver Program, which would allow Romanians to travel to the US without a visa.

Romania currently meets only some of the criteria for the Visa Waiver programme. However, to get into the programme, the rejection rate for Romanian visa applications must drop below 3 per cent.

Some 42,000 Romanians asked for temporary tourism or business visas in the US last year, up from 35,000 in 2013.

The US Embassy in Bucharest accepted at least 37,000 of the visa applications, as the rejection rate dropped under 10 per cent for the first time.

Over 5,500 of the granted visas went to pilots and sailors, and some 5,400 for the Summer Work Travel and cultural exchange programmes. Another 1,000 or so were temporary work visas while another 1,000 were immigration visas.

In 2012, the rejection rate for US visa applicants from Romania was over 20 per cent.