US Restricts Hungary’s Access To Visa Waiver Program

Politico Europe reports:

The United States on Tuesday sharply limited Hungary’s participation in its visa waiver program over security concerns regarding new passports issued between 2011 and 2020.

After coming to power in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government implemented a major policy change that granted citizenship to ethnic Hungarians abroad — including in Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Domestic critics say Orbán’s controversial move was designed to boost his electoral prospects.

David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, told POLITICO in an interview ahead of the announcement, “There are hundreds of thousands of passports that have been issued by the government of Hungary as part of the simplified naturalization program without stringent identity verification mechanisms in place.”

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🚨 BREAKING: Starting today, the US is sharply limiting Hungary’s participation in its ESTA visa waiver program.https://t.co/EXu8FWh8h5

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) August 1, 2023