Croatia joined the small list of countries whose passport-holders could enter the US and stay there for a 90-day period without needing to apply for a visa, Croatian news website javno.com said on January 19 2009.

Croatia has entered a "very small club" of nations that are in the program to cancel visas for visits to the US, javno.com quoted Stewart Baker, assistant secretary for policy at the US department of homeland security in Washington as saying.

Baker made the statement whilst signing documents of cooperation with the Croatian interior ministry for advancing security measures for Croatian citizens travelling to the US. By signing, Croatia officially bound itself to fulfill the conditions for the no visa program, he said.

Javno.com quoted Croatian ambassador to the US, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who signed the document, as saying "Croatia is prepared to fulfill all of the necessary conditions, from implementing biometric passports, to signing an information exchange agreement, protecting its borders, and stopping terrorist activities".

Both Baker and Grabar-Kitarovic said they expected that the visas for Croatian citizens travelling to the US would be cancelled as soon as possible.

In 2008, The procedure for cancelling visas to visits to the US has been completed by the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, taking each of them at least 18 months to do so.

While Croatia has made to the short list of countries whose nationals enjoy a 90-day free stay in the US, Bulgaria is still in the waiting list.

In an October 2008 interview for the Financial Times, Michael Chertoff, the US secretary of the department of homeland security, said that Bulgaria was among the countries who could be included in the shortlist within a few months without giving a clear time frame. The countries included Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Romania.

For this to happen, Bulgaria must introduce biometric passports, which is still far from being introduced, although there has been a public tender announced by Bulgaria's Interior Ministry for selecting the company to produce them. The first tender in April 2008 was cancelled, with the ministry claiming that all six bidders presented flawed paperwork.