The online portal "Indeksonline.net" has published today (September 20) a news item stating that the US President's delegate, Richard Grenell, during his visit to Kosovo, will announce the news about the lifting of US visas for Kosovars.
This news item cites internal sources within the Kosovo Government, but does not provide further details.
The warning made by this media outlet about the agenda of Grenell's visit on Monday (September 21), apart from the source within the Government, is not based on any other data.
Original article published by Indeksonline.net:
Indeksonline will keep you informed about other details of this visit by Richard Grenell.
However, according to a brief research conducted by hibrid.info, it turns out that countries that seek visa-free travel with the US must undergo a series of requirements and procedures. In 1986, American institutions created the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), through which other countries are instructed on the procedures that must be followed to gain the status of countries that have free and visa-free travel with the US state.
According to a US Congressional report, updated in July of this year, countries that enter this program are initially placed on a waiting list or known as "Road Map Countries", subject to meeting a series of criteria before their visas are lifted.
Criteria:
Expanded law enforcement and sharing of national security data with the United States;
Issuance of electronic passports;
The visa (B) refusal rate for citizens of the respective country should be below three percent;
Timely reporting of empty, lost and stolen passports; and
Maximum commitment to implementing counter-terrorism policies, law enforcement, border control and document security standards.
However, the inclusion of a country on the waiting list does not guarantee that they will achieve the final request, visa waiver, as many of the countries that have been part of this list have had this request denied.
Link to the US Congressional report July 29, 2020:
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL32221.pdf
Analyze:
From the analysis of the article published by indeksonline.net, it is implied that this news is not verified and as such, may be false, considering the guidelines presented by the American Congress regarding the procedures for including a state in the VWP.
In this case, this news could be categorized as "Unverified Content".
Reasoning:
Unverified content
The “Unverified” rating is given to those media reports that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which have not been able to confirm the same due to the lack or non-possession of reliable sources.