[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1178 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.1178

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-
                                  eight


                                 An Act


 
 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify and extend the 
  visa waiver pilot program, and to provide for the collection of data 
  with respect to the number of nonimmigrants who remain in the United 
  States after the expiration of the period of stay authorized by the 
                            Attorney General.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF VISA WAIVER PILOT PROGRAM.

    Section 217(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act is amended by 
striking ``1998.'' and inserting ``2000.''.

SEC. 2. DATA ON NONIMMIGRANT OVERSTAY RATES.

    (a) Collection of Data.--Not later than the date that is 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall 
implement a program to collect data, for each fiscal year, regarding 
the total number of aliens within each of the classes of nonimmigrant 
aliens described in section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)) whose authorized period of stay 
in the United States terminated during the previous fiscal year, but 
who remained in the United States notwithstanding such termination.
    (b) Annual Report.--Not later than June 30, 1999, and not later 
than June 30 of each year thereafter, the Attorney General shall submit 
an annual report to the Congress providing numerical estimates, for 
each country for the preceding fiscal year, of the number of aliens 
from the country who are described in subsection (a).
SEC. 3. QUALIFICATIONS FOR DESIGNATION AS PILOT PROGRAM COUNTRY.
    Section 217(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1187(c)(2)), is amended to read as follows:
        ``(2) Qualifications.--Except as provided in subsection (g), a 
    country may not be designated as a pilot program country unless the 
    following requirements are met:
            ``(A) Low nonimmigrant visa refusal rate.--Either--
                ``(i) the average number of refusals of nonimmigrant 
            visitor visas for nationals of that country during--

                    ``(I) the two previous full fiscal years was less 
                than 2.0 percent of the total number of nonimmigrant 
                visitor visas for nationals of that country which were 
                granted or refused during those years; and
                    ``(II) either of such two previous full fiscal 
                years was less than 2.5 percent of the total number of 
                nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that 
                country which were granted or refused during that year; 
                or

                ``(ii) such refusal rate for nationals of that country 
            during the previous full fiscal year was less than 3.0 
            percent.
            ``(B) Machine readable passport program.--The government of 
        the country certifies that it has or is in the process of 
        developing a program to issue machine-readable passports to its 
        citizens.
            ``(C) Law enforcement interests.--The Attorney General 
        determines that the United States law enforcement interests 
        would not be compromised by the designation of the country.''.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.