Israel is on the list of nations whose citizens may be able to visit the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa in advance.

While reviewing legislative border security measures last week, Congress approved a bill that actually lowers the bar in the U.S. Visa Waiver program.

Inclusion in the program is based on the proportion of non-immigration visa applications from a given country's citizens that U.S. immigration rejects. The main thrust of the bill is to lower that bar.

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To qualify under existing legislation, the rejection rate for visa applications originating from a given country must be 3 percent or less.

Therefore, if American consulate officials reject 3 percent or less of the visa requests by Israeli citizens, then Israel qualifies for Visa Waiver and its citizens may enter the United States without visas, so long as they leave within 90 days.

The bill would raise the tolerance more than threefold, to 10 percent.

At present, 27 countries qualify for inclusion in the Visa Waiver program. These are mostly Western European countries, and Japan and Australia.

Nothing is automatic, though. To qualify, a country actually has to ask for the right to join the Visa Waiver program.

Under the new rules, 12 countries qualify to apply, including Israel. Others include Argentina, South Korea, Taiwan and Estonia. But the U.S. Homeland Security officials have the last word, based on the cooperation of the other country's law enforcement forces.

Theoretically, Israel could apply for inclusion and be rejected.