Archive: Foreign policy | Czech-American relations Czech-American relations
Czechs and their supporters looking into ways of attaining US visa waiver status
Why do Czechs need a visa to travel to the United States while US citizens
only need a passport to visit the Czech Republic? This is a question that
comes up again and again. The US authorities have two main answers: the
terrorist attacks of September 2001 have led to a stricter visa policy to
protect national security; secondly the number of Czechs who enter the
United States on a tourist visa to work there illegally is estimated at
tens of thousands and has to be regulated. Both arguments sound pretty
convincing, but some Czechs are not willing to give up without a fight and
are looking for ways of persuading the US authorities to lift the visa
requirement.
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FBI seizes "Pirate of Prague" Kozeny in Bahamas paradise
Viktor Kozeny, the so-called Pirate of Prague, is currently sitting in a
police cell in his adopted home of the Bahamas, after being arrested by
the FBI. On Thursday US federal prosecutors charged him and two other men
with participating in a scheme to bribe senior government officials in
Azerbaijan over lucrative oil privatisation deals. He now faces
extradition to the U.S. But as Rob Cameron reports, Czech investors who say they were
defrauded by Mr Kozeny have little hope of seeing their money again.
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