President Bush announced this past week that nationals from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, the Republic of Korea, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic will be added to the list of Visa Waiver eligible countries.  The Visa Waiver Program allows visitors from approved countries to travel to the U.S. for business or pleasure for 90 days or less without having to obtain a visa.  Twenty-seven countries currently on the list are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.  The State Department has noted that it will take a bit of time for the new countries to be initiated into the program, but they expect visitors from the newly added countries to be able to take advantage of the visa waiver program sometime in mid-November.  A machine-readable passport and registration online through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) will be required to participate in the Visa Waiver Program.