#HindiTama: Viral news claims US to waive visas for Pinoys, Asians

#HindiTama is an initiative of GMA News Online to shed light on viral hoaxes and misinformation on the web.

Several websites are claiming that the United States will waive its visa requirement for Filipinos and other Asians.

"The secretary of the United States Department of State, John Kerry has announced that the United States has decided on a bilateral visa policy with Asia. This swift decision was taken by the United States after the President of the Philippines cancelled the visa-free travel enjoyed by Americans to the Philippines," the spurious report claims.

The fake news has been alternately attributed to either "USA Today" or "usatoday-tv.com". Other re-posts instead credit the news to "te1egraph.com".

However, both URLs direct to websites impersonating USA Today and The Telegraph. Neither of the two news organizations has posted any such article.

For its part, the US maintains a list of 38 countries in its "Visa Waiver Program". The Philippines is not in this list.

Under the program, citizens of the following countries may travel to the US for business or tourism purposes for up to 90 days:

• Andorra
• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brunei
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea, Republic of
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Monaco
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Portugal
• San Marino
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom

— JST, GMA News