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The US has tightened a visa waiver programme for Hungarians after saying Budapest failed to ensure adequate identity checks for nearly 1mn people to whom it has granted citizenship in recent years.
The decision, announced by the US embassy in the Hungarian capital on Tuesday, is effective immediately. Under the new rules, the US’s Esta visa-waiver entry permit for Hungarian passport holders will be valid for one year rather than two and only allow single rather than multiple entry, the embassy said. The new rules do not affect approvals granted before the announcement.
In a statement, the embassy cited “security vulnerabilities created by [Hungary’s] earlier implementation of its simplified naturalisation process” for ethnic Hungarians in the region.
The government led by rightwing populist Viktor Orbán issued about 1mn passports to ethnic Hungarians in countries such as Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia between 2011 and 2020. But the US has said it did so “without adequate security measures in place to verify their identities”.
Under the Esta system, citizens of the 40 participating countries can enter and leave the US multiple times during the two-year period without a visa and remain each time for up to 90 days. Hungarians will now need to apply for a permit each time they cross the US border.
Orbán has locked horns with Washington over a string of issues in recent years, including his closeness with Russia, Budapest’s delayed approval for Sweden’s application to join Nato, reluctance to join the western aid effort for Ukraine following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 and a crackdown on LGBT+ rights.
The US has complained for years that Hungary’s passport programme is filled with loopholes, leading to possible abuse by malign actors. It made Hungary’s participation in Esta provisional in 2017 and for three years has required Hungarian citizens born outside Hungary to obtain a visa for entry.
“Despite extensive efforts over many years by the US government to avoid this outcome and resolve longstanding security issues arising from Hungary’s simplified naturalisation process, the Hungarian government has opted not to address the concerns,” the embassy said.
Hungary’s interior ministry said on Tuesday that the US had demanded Budapest hand over personal data of dual citizen ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary. It did not detail what kind of data.
The ministry told state news agency MTI that the government had refused to comply with that request as “the security of ethnic Hungarians was at stake. Therefore the government of President Joe Biden has taken revenge on Hungarians”.
Hungary was the only Esta participant affected by the new restrictions, US ambassador to Budapest David Pressman told Politico, the news outlet.
The US had tightened the regulations in response to a continued failure by Budapest to respond to its concerns, Pressman said, adding: “This is about choice.”