[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1854 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1854

 To temporarily increase the number of visas available for backlogged 
       spouses and children of lawful permanent resident aliens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 18, 1999

  Mr. Shays (for himself, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Ms. Berkley, Mr. 
Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr. Capuano, Mr. English, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. 
   Frost, Mr. Gilman, Mr. Gutierrez, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mrs. 
Johnson of Connecticut, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr. Kolbe, Ms. Lee, Mr. Maloney 
of Connecticut, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Petri, Mr. Schaffer, Ms. 
Schakowsky, and Mr. Underwood) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To temporarily increase the number of visas available for backlogged 
       spouses and children of lawful permanent resident aliens.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Immigration Backlog Reduction Act''.

SEC. 2. 5-YEAR INCREASE IN VISAS FOR BACKLOGGED SPOUSES AND CHILDREN OF 
              LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENT ALIENS.

    (a) In General.--In addition to any immigrant visa numbers 
otherwise available, 60,000 immigrant visa numbers shall be made 
available in each of the fiscal years 2000 through 2004 for aliens who 
have petitions approved for classification under section 203(a)(2)(A) 
of the Immigration and Nationality Act for the fiscal year.
    (b) Priority.--
            (1) Subject to paragraph (2), visa numbers under this 
        section shall be made available in the order in which a 
        petition, on behalf of each such immigrant for classification 
        under section 203(a)(2)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality 
        Act, is filed with the Attorney General under section 204 of 
        such Act.
            (2) Visa numbers under this section shall first be made 
        available to aliens for whom the petitioning alien did not 
        become an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence 
        through the operation of section 210 or 245A of the Immigration 
        and Nationality Act.
            (3) The per country numerical limitations of section 202 of 
        such Act shall not apply with respect to visa numbers made 
        available under this section, and visa numbers made available 
        under this section shall not be counted in determining whether 
        there are excess family admissions in a fiscal year under 
        section 201(c)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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