Citizens of these countries will be able to visit the US without a visa for tourism or business purposes. For work or study in America, they will still have to obtain visas.
The US is also negotiating with EU countries with which it has not yet concluded visa-free agreements: Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Poland, and Romania. It is expected that visa-free regimes with them could be established before January 20, when the elected US President Barack Obama takes office.
However, a US official stated that citizens of not all these countries will be able to start entering America as of this year. According to him, the problem is that in some of them the visa refusal rate is above ten percent. Which countries are meant, the official did not say.
As Lenta.ru reports, starting January 12, 2009, citizens eligible for visa-free entry to the US will have to obtain authorization for their trips by filling out an electronic ESTA system questionnaire online. The information they will have to provide about themselves is similar to the data entered on a migration card.