Visiting the U.S. no longer a breeze for Poles

By BOGDAN KIPLING
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
WARSAW, Poland -- Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" has been around since 1936, but President Bush and his advisers don't seem to have heard about it -- let alone tried to apply its guidelines to Poland.
I was astounded by the depth of resentment among Poles at the shabby treatment they receive when they wish to travel to the United States. There is a hurt you can almost touch when Poles talk about visas that they must get before they can visit the United States.
They have trouble seeing why Washington treats Germans or French nationals as best friends although their countries have hindered American policies in Iraq, while Poland has put forth the lives of its soldiers and its treasury to support the United States.
It is not a question of Poles not understanding political realities in the United States. I've heard many rational words about Washington's reasons for not wanting to single out Poland for special treatment. But these reasons are not convincing to Poles because they amount to generalizations smacking of capriciousness, to put it politely.
For example, Polish officials say the American side is hiding behind statistics without providing actual figures. Visa-free entry is possible only if three percent or less of visa applications in a given nation are rejected. But in official talks, the American side does not offer hard information about what percentage of Polish visa requests are rejected.
The upshot, one Polish official told me, is that people who clearly have no chance of getting a visa pay the $100 fee -- a hefty sum for most Poles -- only to end up with a rejection slip.
Marek Opiola is a Polish parliamentarian in a hurry. A 30-year-old political scientist working on his doctorate, he is a member of the governing PiS, or Law and Justice party. He describes himself as a firm friend of the United States.
Substantive, symbolic
The visa issue, Opiola says, is both substantive and symbolic. Removing the visa requirement would be "a sort of symbolic crowning" of the changes since 1989 when Poland rejoined the West and entered into its close alliance with the United States.
Jadwiga Zakrzewska, a veteran member of parliament, albeit from the opposition PO (Citizens' Platform party) expressed nearly identical views. "Friends should not be taken for granted," she told me when I asked her about the importance of the visa issue. Given Poland's historic friendship with the United States, she said, "our mutual relations should be more important."
Zakrzewska is a serious politician. She is the ranking member of the parliament's military committee. She says Poles continue to see the United States as their friend. American diplomats, she says, are fond of saying that "Poles are more pro-American than Americans."
But like Opiola, she says Washington needs to reciprocate the friendship, the Poles have demonstrated on so many fronts, including Iraq.
As Poles see it, much of the trouble lies in stereotyping. Americans, they feel, see every Polish visa applicant as an unwelcome alien come to steal American jobs. There is no doubt some visitors from Poland overstay their visas and work without permits. But here again, there are no hard figures, and vague assumptions are treated as facts.
Welcome mat
Washington could take a leaf from Britain's book on relations with Poland. Britain and Ireland have opened their doors wide and put out a welcome mat.
Bogdan Kipling is a veteran Washington columnist for the Halifax Chronicle Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services