Romania: Visa-free travel to the USA from March 31, 2025

Romanian citizens are expected to be able to travel to the United States visa-free with ESTA from March 31, 2025. This was announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on January 10, 2025.

DHS assumes that the official ESTA application website and ESTA app will be updated by March 31, 2025 and will be available to Romanian citizens.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) had already confirmed in November 2024 that Romania meets the requirements for inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).

Important requirement fulfilled

One of the decisive factors was the rejection rate for B-1 / B-2 visas in the US Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, which was 2.61 % and therefore below the required threshold of 3 %.

The 2024 US Fiscal Year is between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024, during which time Romanian nationals worldwide filed 80,596 applications for B-1 / B-2 visas, twice as many as the previous year. According to the Romanian Embassy in the USA, 78,000 of these visa applications were approved.

Final steps in the admission process

As mentioned above, it was announced in mid-January 2025 that the admission process had begun and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025.

Until the admission to the Visa Waiver Program is officially implemented, Romanian travelers will continue to require B visas.