Two ministers first Czechs to use US visa-waiver programme

Prague, Nov 17 (CTK) - Deputy PM Alexandr Vondra and Interior Minister Ivan Langer, along with another passenger, are the first Czechs to travel to the USA without visas in view of the Czech accession to the U.S. visa-waiver programme as of Monday.

Vondra and Langer (both Civic Democrats, ODS), have departed from Prague for New York aboard the first "visa-free" flight before noon Monday.

The Czechs and citizens of the other six countries for whom the USA lifted the visa requirements as of November 17 now only need the registration in the ESTA electronic system of travel authorisation when planning to go to the USA for business or tourist purposes, but only if they have a passport with biometrical data.

If not, they still need visas, as they do for work, study and journalists' stays.

Vondra said he has registered himself with the ESTA, but is flying to the USA with a diplomatic visa as his trip is of a work character.

Langer, on his part, has left for a private visit to New York, he said.

Apart from the Czech Republic, the other states admitted to the U.S. visa-waiver programme are Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and South Korea.

As of January, the ESTA registration will also become compulsory for citizens of the 27 states, including 15 mainly old EU states, that have had visa-free relations with the USA so far.

Critics said ESTA is nothing but another form of visas, which Vondra resolutely dismissed at a press conference before the departure Monday. The conference was also attended by Langer and U.S. Ambassador to Prague Richard Graber.

"This is absolute nonsense. The data you enter in the ESTA is simply nothing," he said.

Vondra said the unjust situation where the Czechs had to undergo "a humiliating [U.S. visa] procedure for many years while Austrians, Germans and others did not need visas" has ended now.

Langer emphasised that the "end of another Iron Curtain" came on November 17, the 19th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia and less than a year after the Czech entry into the Schengen area.

The Czechs can use the visa-free regime for business and tourist stays in the USA for a maximal 90 days. They are asked to apply for the e-permit, valid for two years, 72 hours before the departure at the latest.