[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 974 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 974

      To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify the 
 qualifications for a country to be designated as a visa waiver pilot 
                            program country.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 26, 1997

   Mr. Reed introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify the 
 qualifications for a country to be designated as a visa waiver pilot 
                            program country.

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

SECTION 1. 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--
                                    ``(I) the previous full fiscal year 
                                was less than 3.5 percent; and
                                    ``(II) the two previous full fiscal 
                                years was at least 50 percent less than 
                                such refusal rate during fiscal year 
                                1994.
                    ``(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.''.
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