The United States tightened the terms of its visa waiver program for Hungarian nationals on Tuesday over what it said was Budapest’s failure to “address the security vulnerabilities” posed by passports issued since 2011.
Washington has repeatedly criticized the urgent passport system introduced by nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on the basis of which citizenship has been granted to about a million people since 2011, considering it vulnerable to “security breaches”.
Most of them come from countries neighboring Hungary, where there are nearly two million ethnic Hungarians, a legacy of the post-World War I era when the country’s borders shrank.
And in 2018, the United States threatened to revoke the visa waiver for Hungarian passport holders after officials uncovered a suspected scheme in which non-Hungarians entered the United States under false identities.
The US Embassy in Budapest stated that the simplified naturalization process followed by Hungary at that time lacked “appropriate security measures … to verify identities”.
“In light of … Hungary’s decision not to fully address the security weaknesses caused by its previous implementation of the simplified naturalization process, the procedures for all Hungarian passport holders to use the Visa Waiver Program have been amended,” she added.
Starting Tuesday, the validity period of the electronic travel permit system for Hungarian passport holders will be reduced from two years to one year for a single use, according to the embassy.
Nationals of countries in the Visa Waiver Program may travel to the United States for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days without a visa, as long as they receive permission through the electronic system.
The Hungarian Ministry of Interior denounced the US move, saying that it would not respond to Washington’s request to obtain “data of Hungarians (residents) abroad who hold dual nationalities.”
“The safety of Hungarians abroad is at stake,” she said in a statement. “So now President Joe Biden’s government is taking revenge on the Hungarians.”
Since assuming power in 2010, Orban has repeatedly clashed with the United States and the European Union over accusations that he pushed Hungary toward authoritarianism.
Orban, who is close to former President Donald Trump, accuses the current US administration of seeking to weaken his government and support the Hungarian opposition.
AFP