Washington — The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would lift travel restrictions on Hungarian citizens after the country took steps to address security vulnerabilities, in the latest sign of warming ties between Washington and Budapest.
The Biden administration in 2021 imposed restrictions on Hungarian passport holders born outside of Hungary and reduced the timeframe of authorized travel permitted under the Visa Waiver Program, citing a simplified naturalization policy backed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that extended citizenship to people born abroad who claimed Hungarian ancestry.
Officials said at the time that nearly 1 million people were granted citizenship between 2011 and 2020 without adequate vetting.
Under the Visa Waiver Program, most citizens of participating countries are allowed to visit the United States for 90 days or fewer, if they obtain approval within the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Citizens from more than 40 countries are eligible to travel to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program, according to the State Department’s website.
While ESTA approvals typically allow travel over a span two years, restrictions added by the U.S. in 2023 had reduced that validity period for the Hungarian travelers born outside the country from two years to one, and limited the authorization to only one entry into the U.S.
Beginning Sept. 30, the Trump administration is restoring the validity period back to two years and allowing Hungarians to make multiple entries into the U.S. within that time.
“The United States and Hungary have a strong security partnership, and that commitment is reflected in the actions that Hungary has taken to meet the security standards of the Visa Waiver Program,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“We believe in the friendship between our nations, grounded in sovereignty, freedom, and mutual respect,” Robert Palladino, the U.S. charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Budapest, said in a video statement.
The Hungarian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Trump has praised Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a “fantastic leader” and hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2024.
“Viktor Orbán has done a tremendous job in so many different ways. Highly respected. Respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s OK. That’s OK. You’ve done a good job and you’ve kept your country safe,” Mr. Trump said in May 2019.
While Mr. Trump has embraced Orban, the Biden administration had a colder relationship with the NATO ally. Then-President Biden criticized the Hungarian leader in 2024 as “looking for a dictatorship.” Hungary for months delayed the expansion of NATO to include Sweden and Finland, arguing their additions would antagonize Russia.
The European Union has also accused Hungary of democratic backsliding and earlier this year cut off access to more than a billion euros in funding for what the bloc said were violations of rule of law and a failure to address corruption.
Camilla Schick
contributed to this report.
Nicole Sganga