Countries frustrated by U.S. visa waiver program.

There is a long wait for countries wanting to join the privileged few whose citizens do not need to obtain a visa to enter the United States for business or pleasure.

No country has been added to the visa waiver program since 1999, and after 9/11, the requirements only grew tougher.

The wait is not unlike the one found outside U.S. consulates in such countries as South Korea and Poland, where applicants must stand outside in the heat, rain or cold for an opportunity to be interviewed by an official who has the power to reject applications.

The visa waiver program allows citizens of approved countries to arrive at a U.S. port of entry and receive a stamp in their passport good for a 90-day visit, without the $100 fee or a long application process in their home country.

The hold up for the hopeful nations is mostly a matter of security, said Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security. For a nation to qualify, it must offer a reciprocal visa to U.S. citizens, have a less than 3 percent rejection rate for those applying for visas in-country and adhere to the "law enforcement and national security interests of the United States," he said at a Heritage Foundation briefing.

The last qualification is vague, Baker admitted. It is a "sore point" for the approximately two dozen countries waiting to join the program, most of them from Eastern Europe.

"We have undertaken recently to be much more specific about this," Baker said. "We have to find a way through these security issues."

James Jay Carafano, senior research fellow at the foundation, said adding countries to the list, if done with security in mind, strengthens cultural, economic and defenseties. Countries that are actively sharing information on travelers with the goal of preventing terrorism should be allowed to join on a probationary basis, he said.

Poland, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Slovak Republic and India are all good candidates, he said.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., has offered an amendment to the Comprehensive Immigration and Reform Act of 2006 that would allow a two-year probationary visa waiver to countries that have contributed troops to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other amendments specify that only European Union nations could join. Under these requirements, only Poland would qualify, Carafano noted.

Nevertheless, Carafano predicted that Congress will not take action to loosen up the requirements any time soon. The mood in the House is to "build walls rather than take them down," he said.

--Reported by Stew Magnuson

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