An unnamed senior official at the US Embassy in Jerusalem told Israeli media Aug. 4 that if the Knesset fails to pass legislation necessary for entering the American Visa Waiver Program (VWP), Israelis may have to wait 12-18 months before another opportunity for visa exemptions for tourists becomes available.

The official explained that if the procedure for applying to enter the VWP is delayed, US authorities will have to base their decision on data from 2023, instead of earlier data. This, in return, could harm the Israeli request.

One of the conditions for a country to join the VWP is less than a 3% visa request denial rate. Over the years, Israel did not qualify for the program because of this condition. Israeli experts claimed that the high rate of visa denials was mainly because US authorities are reluctant to offer tourist visas to young Israelis after their army service, estimating that some of them actually plan to stay in the country illegally after their visas expire.

Thus, over the past few years, Israel’s Interior Ministry published guides and advice for these tourists on how to minimize the risk for a US visa denial. The combination of this campaign with the lower number of Israeli tourists to the United States because of coronavirus restrictions might actually reduce the number of denials for 2022, bringing it under the 3% bar. This might not be the case for Israeli tourism to the United States in 2023.