“Chile in talks with US to maintain visa waiver program”| Daily list

The Chilean Embassy in the United States clarified this Thursday that it is in talks with US officials to maintain the visa waiver program. Visa WaiverA group of legislators from the North American country questioned its future.

“Meetings will continue tomorrow and we hope that a consensus will lead to a decision that fully satisfies both parties,” Chile’s ambassador to Washington, Juan Gabriel Valdes, said on social media.

A subcommittee of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved funding a visa waiver program conditional on Chile sharing data on the background of Chileans traveling to the US.

The ambassador explained that talks between the Chilean government’s technical teams and the US Department of Homeland Security “have advanced with full consensus on rules and mechanisms to ensure the expeditious exchange of criminal records of visa waiver applicants.”

“Agitation and exaggeration will not help Development of these exchanges. “Calm is necessary in the face of ongoing processes,” Valdez said.

Chile is the only country in Latin America that is part of this program that allows entry into the United States for tourism, business or transit and a maximum stay of 90 days without a visa, but with an electronic travel authorization.

Orange County (California) prosecutor Todd Spitzer accused Chile in May of refusing to provide information about twenty Chileans detained in the United States who entered the country using this type of visa.

Republican Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the lower house, criticized the plan last week because, in his opinion, many Chilean citizens who enter the North American country through visa waivers belong to organized crime networks.