Today, February 7th, 2023, the Atlantic Council held a panel discussion on if 2023 would be when Israel would join the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
Fiscal year 2023 is a good year for Israel to join the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The visa waiver program would mean that Israelis would be able to visit the US without a visa for up to 90 days and Israel has to make sure that they do not discriminate against allowing any Americans to enter Israel, and includes travel to and from the West Bank through the Ben Gurion airport. At the panel, they emphasized “Blue is Blue” with the regular US passport, since one major requirement is that there should be no distinction between people entering like with ethnicity or religion. There are a few other major requirements for the visa waiver program.
Another major requirement is meeting a non-immigrant visa refusal rate of under 3%. Israel met this requirement for fiscal year 2022, though the data was published last week. This has not always been the case in the past, so the US government wants to use this year to push for the other requirements before the end of fiscal year 2023. The Israeli legislature, the Knesset, needs to continue with the next phases of the bill for the visa waiver program, basically in the next two months, but they have been occupied by the judiciary changes in Israel.
Israel also has to meet technical requirements. These technical requirements are important, because this visa waiver program is first and foremost a security program, since it helps both US and Israel collect criminal and other security-related data for ease of travel, though there are lots of economic benefits (for many businesses) and political benefits (this would be a big win for the Israeli government since many in Israel want this).
The important thing is for the Israeli government to push for these requirements quickly, and comply with the visa waiver program, in order to get into the visa waiver program for FY 2023.
Atlantic Council panel discussion: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/will-2023-be-the-year-israel-joins-the-us-visa-waiver-program/
Info related to Israel possibly joining the visa waiver program: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/01/us-israel-closer-signing-visa-waiver-netanyahu-rushes-finish-line
