Na co komu wizy do USA Poland & Visa Waiver - Max Kolonko Tells It Like It Is

After the Boston terrorist attack, Poland's chances for the US visa exemption are D.O.A. What are the facts in this case? First, the visa waiver program is a program which allows citizens of other countries to travel to the U.S. without visas and to stay there up to 90 days. All the EU countries participate in this program with exception of Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. Obviously. this situation is quite uncomfortable for Poles in my opinion more so because of our ambitions than economic reasons. I will elaborate later on that. Now, in February this year a group of Illinois congressmen Quigley, Schock and Kirk proposed a bill which would modify the eligibility criteria for the program. They proposed that instead of looking at the percentage of denials (there's a 3% threshold -- how many applications are rejected by the U.S. Consulate), look instead at the number of people overstaying in the U.S. after they were awarded visas. So in other words if 97% of Poles (almost everyone) who arrived in the U.S.comes back - there should be no problem and Poland should automatically join the visa waiver program. This is how it looks on paper. now: how it looks from the American perspective? America is currently closing its borders - not opening them, especially after the terrorist attacks in Boston. Even the Immigration Act -- in fact an amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants is likely to be postponed despite the fact that congressmen have been working on it for weeks and it was scheduled for implementation within six weeks. Right now America and its society has a negative attitude towards immigration after terrorist attacks in Boston just as it used to have a negative attitude towards assault weapon issues after the attack on a school in Newtown. The other thing is that the program mentioned by the gentlemen from Illinois will be applied also to countries other than Poland (because that's how the law works) so it conflicts with the concept of closing the borders and not opening them. Therefore, It seems to be a bad time for Congress to push the bill through the floor now. The third thing is that the Americans are aware that the Polish eastern border is quite an open border In fact it is the most opened border among the Schengen zone According to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs we issue twice as many visas as all the Shengen zone countries in Eastern Europe. We let through the border huge hoards of people with abandon and without any measurable benefits for the Polish economy. These people treat Poland as a transit country. Like a gas station. They come here to learn English (because it's cheap), gain some experience, a profession and an education at little cost. After that, they don't stay in the country, they don't contribute to the Polish economy but they move further west to pursue their careers. And that's one thing. The other is we don't really know who passes through this border. The Americans don't know, the Europeans don't know, and we don't know it ourselves. Therefore we should look closely who goes through the border, who are the people who come here As there might be terrorists in the group too. The Americans know that - so the first thing we should do is to tighten the eastern border and only after that, go to the Capitol in order to talk about the US visa waver program. And the last thing here is this: Please close your eyes. and imagine that a friend of yours travels to the U.S. And tell me, honestly, what percentage of those people will come back? If you believe that all of them (97% is almost everyone) will come back, we have no problem. But if you believe that just above 3% of them might over stay above 90 days and work illegally then we do have a problem. Because in that case, the visa privilege will be taken back from us. And then Poland would be discredited on the international arena, and all of us would be discredited even more, than when we feel uncomfortable or humiliated every time some bureaucrat at the Consulate stamps a visa denial in our passport. Matter of fact they do it because Polish society is not a rich society and Poland is not a rich country. This is how it works around the world: when you come to the U.S Consulate the first question you are asked is What you have? If you don't have much you get a denial. That's how it works everywhere no matter if you come from a country that once used to run the entire Europe or not. That is why I believe we should forget about the whole visa affair because we don't need it at all right now and we should focus on making our country a wealthy one. We need to force our politicians to make Poland rich. Instead of showing Poland as a green island of prosperity on some PR map MAKE Poland a real green island and a real land of prosperity, and become a wealthy society. And when that happens the Americans will come here for work If they can get a visa, of course. This is Max Kolonko. And I tell it like it is. From New York.