Obama opens door for Polish visa waiver

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President Barack Obama arrives in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday on the last leg of his European tour. | Charles Dharapak~AP

Updated: July 7, 2011 2:52PM

President Barack Obama didn’t quite say the words that Poles and Polish-Americans were hoping to hear before he left Warsaw Saturday.

But he came close.

For years, Poland has been one of the only European countries whose residents had to go through the trouble of securing a visa to visit the United States — a relic of past decades in which too many Poles overstayed their visas.

With Poland’s economy growing, that’s not the case anymore. And officials in both countries have been trying to get Poland in the U.S. Visa Waiver program.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, whose district is home to the highest concentration of recent Polish immigrants in the country, has fought for that since he took office three years ago, as did his predecessor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Newly elected Sen. Mark Kirk has also taken up the cause in the Senate.

On Saturday, Obama said he had endorsed the bills introduced by Quigley and Kirk.

“The problem has to do with the existing law that
. . . was based on the rejection rate of visas,” Obama told a reporter Saturday, referring to the number of visa applications rejected by the American embassy in Warsaw.

“Poland didn’t qualify under that law, and I could not simply waive the law,” he said. “But what I’ve now done is put my support behind legislation in Congress that would change the criteria so that we’re looking at the overstay rate of visas, and our expectation is, that by this change in the law, we can be in a position to resolve this issue in a way that is satisfactory to Poland, but also meets the security concerns of the United States.”

Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus are three other European countries whose residents still need visas.

Quigley, Kirk and others have argued that Polish tourists could pump money into America’s economy. A Polish reporter said Poles would like to go shopping on Fifth Avenue.

“We very much want you to shop on Fifth Avenue and anywhere else in the United States,” Obama said in response, spurring laughter.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk added, “More and more Polish people make enough money to be able to afford shopping on Fifth Avenue . . . so I’m really very glad that there are very clear signs, and your personal engagement, Mr. President. This will most probably also let American people make more money on Polish tourists and Polish buyers.”

Quigley, who traveled to Poland last year to address this and other issues, said Saturday, “I applaud President Obama on his strong commitment to right this wrong and bring equity to a system that is uniquely unfair to Poland and Polish-Americans.”

Kirk and Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., likewise welcomed Obama’s encouraging words. Frank Spula, president of the Chicago-based Polish National Alliance and Polish-American Congress called Obama’s remarks a step in the right direction and said “I commend him.”

Quigley said he intends to meet with House leaders Tuesday to renew the push.