[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5168 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.5168

                    One Hundred Seventeenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

           Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,
          the third day of January, two thousand and twenty two


                                 An Act


 
 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to include aliens passing 
  in transit through the United States to board a vessel on which the 
alien will perform ship-to-ship liquid cargo transfer operations within 
         a class of nonimmigrant aliens, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Energy Security and Lightering 
Independence Act of 2022''.
SEC. 2. CHANGES IN NONIMMIGRANT CATEGORIES.
    (a) Transit Through United States.--Section 101(a)(15)(C) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(C)) is amended to 
read as follows:
        ``(C)(i) an alien in immediate and continuous transit through 
    the United States, for a period not to exceed 29 days;
        ``(ii) an alien who qualifies as a person entitled to pass in 
    transit to and from the United Nations Headquarters District (as 
    defined in section 209A(e) of the State Department Basic 
    Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 4309a(e))) and foreign 
    countries, under the provisions of paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of 
    section 11 of the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the 
    United Nations, done at Lake Success June 26, 1947 (61 Stat. 758); 
    or
        ``(iii) an alien passing in transit through the United States 
    to board a vessel on which the alien will perform, or to disembark 
    from a vessel on which the alien performed, ship-to-ship liquid 
    cargo transfer operations to or from another vessel engaged in 
    foreign trade, for a period not to exceed 180 days;''.
    (b) Alien Crewmen.--Section 101(a)(15)(D) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 
1101(a)(15)(D)) is amended--
        (1) in clause (ii), by adding ``or'' at the end; and
        (2) by adding at the end the following:
        ``(iii) an alien crewman performing ship-to-ship liquid cargo 
    transfer operations to or from another vessel engaged in foreign 
    trade, who intends to land temporarily solely in pursuit of the 
    alien's responsibilities as a crewman and to depart from the United 
    States on the vessel on which the alien arrived or on another 
    vessel or aircraft, for a period not to exceed 180 days;''.
SEC. 3. CONDITIONAL PERMITS TO LAND TEMPORARILY.
    Section 252(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1282(a)) is amended--
        (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``or'' at the end;
        (2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the end and 
    inserting ``; or''; and
        (3) by adding at the end the following:
        ``(3) 180 days, if the immigration officer determines that the 
    crewman--
            ``(A) intends to depart, within the period for which the 
        crewman is permitted to land, on the same vessel or on a vessel 
        or aircraft other than the vessel on which the crewman arrived; 
        and
            ``(B) will perform ship-to-ship liquid cargo transfer 
        operations to or from any other vessel engaged in foreign trade 
        during such period.''.
SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.
    For purposes of this Act, and the amendments made by this Act, the 
performance by a crewman of ship-to-ship liquid cargo transfer 
operations to or from any other vessel engaged in foreign trade shall 
not be considered, for immigration purposes, to be services, work, 
labor or employment by the crewman within the United States.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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