Irene Piki: We will make every effort for US visa waiver

The government will make every effort to free Cypriot citizens from the obligation of needing to secure a visa to enter the USA, Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki said in an interview with InBusinessNews.

Cyprus, along with Romania and Bulgaria, are the only EU countries whose residents still require a visa to enter the USA; and the process to get one issued is time-consuming and demanding.

However, an effort has been underway to remove Cyprus from this list, in coordination and full consultation with the USA.

Piki has been assigned the responsibility of coordinating the entire effort on Cyprus’ part, acting as a contact point for all the relevant ministries and state services.

“I have been appointed as the contact point for the coordination on behalf of the government to complete all the procedures in order to achieve the goal of abolishing the visa and we are already in cooperation with the US Embassy,” she said. She added that this specific issue was a top priority for President Nikos Christodoulides.

She said it was too early to know what the outcome might be, however she stressed that the government was making every effort, on a political as well as technocratic level, to resolve all the issues that need to be resolved.

“Because there are also certain technocratic issues that need to be addressed,” said Piki. “And this is precisely where I come in, to coordinate and ensure that all the services are taking all the actions that need to be taken, and effectively in terms of what is being requested by the American side, so as to accommodate our removal from the list.”

Last week, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said that Cyprus was following the models used by other countries that had recently been removed from similar lists obliging them to secure visas to enter the US.

Citing inside information, InBusinessNews reported that first substantive developments are expected in late June.