The new visa rules, which the United States has approved for Armenian citizens, envisage longer terms of validity, without other changes in the procedures, Consul Frank Tu said today (Dec 12), introducing recent reforms, Tert.am reports.

Under the new measure, which will be effective starting January 1, Armenian citizens wishing to travel to the United States for tourism or business purposes will be granted multiple visas for a maximum period of ten years.

Describing the reform as very good news, the consul said he hopes that it would also boost the tourism development.

According to Tu, best efforts are made to facilitate the visa application procedures. As he noted, last year the U.S. Embassy launched a new program enabling citizens to obtain visas without interviews. As for the visa issuance procedures, he said it is a completely different process.

Ambassador John Heffern, in turn, hailed the visa facilitation agreement in promoting closer ties between the citizens of Armenia and the U.S.