The United States recently drew the attention of the Hungarian government to the fact that diplomatic passports issued by the Hungarian government are increasingly being offered by visa applicants who have no clear indication that they hold an official role within the Hungarian government. The US Embassy in Budapest said in a statement: “Finding On telex.”
We went to the US Embassy with questions after it emerged that György Szolosy, president of the Hungarian Sports Journalists Association, editor-in-chief of Nemzeti Sport magazine and Puskas ambassador, did not obtain a diplomatic visa from the United States. Embassy, so he was unable to travel to a Hungarian event in Chicago. We wrote more about this in this article.
We wanted to know from the embassy the following:
- What is the reason for a Szöllősi visa application being rejected?
- During the procedure, was it taken into account that György Szolosi referred to himself as the official representative and ambassador of Hungary in the visa application?
The US Embassy stressed in its response that it does not comment on individual visa cases, because it is considered confidential information under US law.
They added, however, that under US law, diplomatic visas can only be issued to foreign government officials and not to individuals who are not employed or paid to work in an official government position, regardless of the type of passport presented.
We can therefore read from this answer that the US Embassy does not consider Szollósi an official representative of the Hungarian government – even despite his title of ambassador in the Puskás case – and therefore they do not issue him a diplomatic visa, even at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prime Minister Julias Gulyas also responded to the issue in a press conference on Wednesday. He said that he considered it a very unfriendly gesture for Gyorgy Zolosi to not have obtained a visa to the USA. The Minister talked about how Zuluši traveled to Chicago as an ambassador-at-large, and the Hungarian government did not receive official notification of the embassy’s decision, which is why they consider it incomprehensible.
