ALOR STAR: Malaysia’s inclusion in the United States’ visa waiver programme will not happen anytime soon.
This is because the US has no plans to include any new countries in its list in the near future, said US ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir.
Lakhdhir, who has been serving in Malaysia since January last year, said US President Donald Trump's administration has not yet set any time frame to lift the freeze imposed on new applications.
She said the Trump administration is currently studying a variety of issues with regards to immigration matters.
“Apart from visa approval, there are several factors that we are also looking at such as border security and passport security issues. This for the safety of both Malaysian and American travelers,” she said after visiting the American Corner at the State Library here today.
Lakhdhir said the US Embassy is working closely with the Malaysian government to achieve the minimum approval rate of 97 per cent in filling up visa forms for business trips (B1) and tourist (B2) visas to the US.
"We are working closely with the Foreign Ministry and the Immigration Department on various border security and passport issues," she said.
She said that although the approval rate of B1 and B2 visas is improving, it has yet to reach the 97 per cent level required by the US.
On the other hand, she said the number of visa approvals for Malaysians furthering their studies in the US has gone up substantially to 99 per cent throughout last year.
Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had expressed confidence that the government would be able to fulfil all conditions in order to participate in the US Visa Waiver programme by Sept 2018.
He was quoted as saying that all terms and conditions set by the US have been fulfilled except for one - keeping the percentage of rejected US visa applications to below 3.0 percent.
It was also reported the rejections were largely due to the applicants’ failure to fill in the forms correctly.
On a separate note, Lakhdhir said 12 fresh graduates from the US will be arriving in Kedah to serve as English Teaching Assistants (ETA) in local schools.
She said they form part of 100 volunteers arriving from the US next week under the programme to help local students to have better grasp of English.
