An American diplomatic visit has reportedly tempered expectations in Bulgaria regarding an imminent lifting of U.S. visa requirements for Bulgarian citizens, despite continued political assurances that progress is being made toward inclusion in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program.
According to an official statement from the Ministry of Interior, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev met with John Gountanis, Deputy Under Secretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responsible for strategy, policy and planning. During the talks, Demerdzhiev highlighted Bulgaria’s progress in meeting the program’s technical criteria and raised the issue of visa-free travel.
However, the American side reaffirmed that the decisive condition remains the reduction of visa refusal rates. As stated in the Bulgarian announcement, Gountanis underlined “the importance of the criteria for inclusion in the Program and indicating that an important condition remains the requirement to reduce the percentage of visa refusals.” In practice, this confirms that the threshold of around 3% remains a key benchmark without which progress cannot move forward.
Official figures show Bulgaria’s visa rejection rate for the U.S. fiscal year 2025 has fallen to 5.11%, according to State Department data cited by the Foreign Ministry. While this represents a significant improvement compared to previous years, it remains above the required threshold.
