As it currently stands, the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens of 38 countries — namely European states, Australia, Japan and South Korea — to travel to the United States without having to obtain a visa. However, the US House of Representatives passed a bill (H. R. 158) on Dec. 8 that aims to exclude from this program all dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and anyone else who has traveled to those countries in the past five years.
If the bill passes through the Senate and is signed into law, this means in practical terms that for instance any British, French, German, Australian or Japanese citizen who has recently traveled to one of these four destinations loses his or her automatic eligibility to enter the United States without a visa. Thus, those affected would have to go through a visa application process before being able to gain permission to travel to the United States.
