Why doesn't the UAE fulfill the requirements of the visa waiver program?

Maybe for a starter, UAE should try and use the correct name: Persian Gulf. That would be a good start. EDIT: This could be a very good reason why UAE is not included in the visa waiver program. How do you know it's not a good reason? It's true that "Persia" does not exist any more, but the Persian people still exist. Do you realize that "Persian" is an ethnic group, just like "Arab"? So by ignoring the term "Persian" you people are offending a huge amount of people with Persian heritage. Iranian = Nationality Persian = Ethnicity Does that make any sense to you? @tin m: I gave a decent answer to why I think UAE is not a part of the program. Have you got a problem with that, Patrick?

it is sad to say that Muslims are not United thats the main reason. and muslims should learn from Western society how they help each other the best example is Greece economy help.

سلام I have absolutely no idea. I live here as a british expat, and i must say its harder to be a terrorist here than anywhere else. The punishment is very strong (very good) for terrorist activities. In the UK i swear any threat to national security does not hold any significant punishment. Well, the truth is it must be the freezing of Islam in the west. Its not a particularly well understood religion where i come from, but as i've lived out here i've seen my fair share of peace and equality. Many US congressmen haven't, and thats a shame. And i do find that of all the places in the East, qatar andthe uae and abu dhabi (yey!) seem the most westernised, especially amongst emiratis. 'Locals' where i live are deemed the wealthiest and most socially powerful in AD. Links with the US and oil are incredibly important, which just adds to my confusion.

Pakistan, india, UAE, Saudi Arabia what ever country you are form; US treat them same as what explanation you have given in your question does not make any difference for US. The sad part of the story is that even (as per your statement) terrorist are trained in Pakistan not in UAE but no Pakistani national was involved in 9/11; they all were arabs (sadly). US has their own policy for immigration so we can not do anything and if you wanna go to US you have to adhere their procedure as any pakistani, indian or saudi have to go through.

Do what Qatar did! It should be reciprocal. edit: agree with fari447.

also consider UAE citizens population is very small (850 thousand only) and only a small fraction go visit & study in US for whatever reason (4000 is it?) , there are more Americans benefiting from UAE entry visas & work visas than Emiratis. Even in terms of immigration to US the UAE has one of the lowest rates. What is 4000 UAE citizens per year going to change in a 300 million people country like US that gets 50 million visitors per year. They almost have no effect at all. And it is not like they can't keep track of them. So that is not a good reason the ambassador said , but I am guessing the reason is perhaps such change could make other GCC countries interested / demand same treatment, and the US does not want to be in that situation . However, former US President Bill Clinton said some very positive things about UAE recently... Britain used to let in UAE citizens without a visa until late 90's I think afterward they started mandatory visa for UAE citizens, but UAE did not do the same for British citizens.I am not sure , may be you know more , but for Germany there is a 2 year multiple entry visa in UAE. I suppose these things should be reciprocal based on how equal treatment applies. Not just in visas but in other things such as drivers license transfer and so on (US does not transfer UAE license, UAE does transfer US license . for citizens of course) The education system in UAE is a 12 year for high school graduation , and I think same goes for Europe. (this means things like collage sciences & math etc is taken in high school in UAE while that is a 2 year collage class in US). Yet they will make the UAE student there retake all those in first year or 2 of collage , while a European friend told me they let him skip those 2 years , which I don't get because both UAE & Europe are 12 year school systems (as opposed to the US 9 year high-school graduate). Perhaps the blame is on UAE Education Ministry for wasting our time with subjects they are going to make you retake many times anyway , and even local UAE collages started demanding 2 year pre-collage which is nonsense to make students take the same stuff over and over, and some even fail & drop out for no reason other than being sick of it, or no longer have the money if this is a private collage. The gist of it is that it is all about money and business and making the poor get poorer and the rich can buy anything they want including a collage degree. @Born to be typical OFF TOPIC answer from you , who asked you about that Spongebob! @Mahesh: that is what THEY SAY , it is not proven that he was one of the HIjackers, it only proves he died on that plane with the rest of the passengers. They only added him to the Hijackers list because his name sounded Arab or Muslim and those investigators can't tell the difference and think any Arab on the plane must be part of whatever group did the act. @Fari447 So what if they were Arabs , they were NOT born and raised in UAE , and not all were Arabs even. Khalid Shaik Mohammad which they keep showing his picture is Pakistani,(not an Arab born in Pakistan neither). I am just correcting your information. And even the couple with UAE passports don't prove anything. After all the Mosad got Irish and British passports to assassinate Mabhouh , can we blame British or Irish people... Also this does not excuse US for not stopping and arresting the hijackers since it was inside US jurisdiction not in UAE jurisdiction . It is really illogical to blame UAE for something that took place on US soil and under the eyes and ears of US law enforcement & FBI /CIA /NSA who were supposed to be watching for such acts after threats were made by ubl himself on tv.

The US has been paranoid about security and will continue to do so. One of the main reasons could be the 9/11 attacks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayez_Banihammad Reputation can get tarnished by isolated incidents and the 9/11 incident was not isolated. It was a planned exercise that involved international terror groups. Why do you allow them to come here without getting a Visa prior to approval. Maybe, if you had done that in retrospect, Mahmood Al Mabouh would still be alive.

Simple really! TRUST