US tightens visa waiver conditions for Hungary

This was reported by Reuters. 

It became known that relations between the two governments have recently deteriorated due to Budapest's delaying of the parliamentary vote on Sweden's accession to NATO and the restriction of the rights of the LGBT community by the nationalist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest announced that the validity of residence permits granted to Hungarians under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) will be immediately reduced from two years to one year, and that only single visits will be allowed under the system, not multiple visits.

Hungary granted citizenship to about a million people between 2011 and 2020 - mostly ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring states -"without adequate security measures in place to verify their identities", the US Embassy said.

Granting citizenship was a political move by Orban to win him votes in the next election.

A senior U.S. official said the changes do not apply to any of the 39 other participants in the visa waiver program and are "unique to Hungary."

"There's a systemic problem, which is hundreds of thousands of passports were issued between 2011 and 2020 without identity verification requirements in place," the official said.

• On July 31, Orban's party boycotted an extraordinary meeting of the Hungarian parliament to ratify Sweden's application for NATO membership.