[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 178 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 178

To require the country of origin of certain special immigrant religious 
workers to extend reciprocal immigration treatment to nationals of the 
                             United States.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2017

 Mr. King of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

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                                 A BILL


 
To require the country of origin of certain special immigrant religious 
workers to extend reciprocal immigration treatment to nationals of the 
                             United States.

    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 ``Religious Worker Visa Reciprocity 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. REQUIRING RECIPROCAL IMMIGRATION TREATMENT.

    Section 204(a)(1)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 
U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(G)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(iii) Beginning on October 1, 2017, no petition may be approved 
for classification of an alien as a special immigrant under section 
101(a)(27)(C) if the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that 
the country of the alien's nationality--
            ``(I) is identified as a `Country of Particular Concern' or 
        a country where religious freedom is of significant interest in 
        the 2013 International Religious Freedom Report; or
            ``(II) does not extend reciprocal immigration treatment to 
        nationals of the United States who are seeking resident status 
        in order to work in a religious vocation or occupation.''.
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