TIRANA, March 28, 2022 – Travel to the United States is about to become a little less bureaucratic and costly for Albanians as their country will become eligible for 10-year U.S. visitor visas starting in April.
“As we celebrate 100 years of U.S.- Albanian relations, Ambassador Yuri Kim announces a very important decision that will make it more convenient for Albanians to visit friends and family in the United States,” the U.S. Embassy to Tirana said in a statement.
Albanians are currently eligible for 3-year visas, which allow visits to the United States for up to six months per year. The visas involved are for tourism and business visits only, and earning money or working in the United States is prohibited under the visas in question.
“The decision … reflects the fact that Albanians are increasingly following the rules when they visit the United States,” Ambassador Kim said in a video statement distributed by the embassy on Facebook.
Albanians had previously been upgraded from one- to three-year visas, also citing less asylum applications and less abuse of travel rules.
The U.S. had previously made it easier for many Albanians who already have visas to renew them without having to go for interviews to the embassy.
For a decade, Albanians have had visa-free access to the European Union and non-members parts of the Schengen Zone like Switzerland and Norway.
In southeast Europe, only Croatia has managed to get visa-free travel to the United States so far. EU-members Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus are in the pipeline for the upgrade but sill need visas.
U.S. and EU citizens can also visit Albania without a visa. The Albanian government recently downgraded U.S. citizens’ rights to stay in Albania visa-free to three months from a year, bringing them in line with EU citizens’ rights.
