To require the Attorney General and the Secretary of State to designate Ireland as a pilot program country for purposes of the visa waiver pilot program.

Includes Ireland in the visa waiver pilot program under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H.R. 4145 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4145

To require the Attorney General and the Secretary of State to designate 
  Ireland as a pilot program country for purposes of the visa waiver 
                             pilot program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 24, 1994

  Mr. McCloskey (for himself, Mr. Machtley, Mr. Moakley, Mr. Neal of 
 Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. Schumer, 
  Mr. Quinn, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Applegate, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Conyers, Mr. 
    Coyne, Mr. Gilman, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Manton, and Ms. Molinari) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Attorney General and the Secretary of State to designate 
  Ireland as a pilot program country for purposes of the visa waiver 
                             pilot program.

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

SECTION 1. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) Ireland and the United States have close cultural and 
        historical ties;
            (2) citizens of Ireland who have entered the United States 
        on nonimmigrant visas have demonstrated exemplary overstay 
        rates of 0.08 percent in 1992 and 1.2 percent in 1991;
            (3) the overstay rates of citizens of Ireland who enter the 
        United States on nonimmigrant visas are comparable to the 
        overstay rates of citizens of the Western European countries 
        that are currently designated as pilot program countries for 
        purposes of the visa waiver pilot program described in section 
        217 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1187); and
            (4) citizens of the United States are able to enter Ireland 
        without obtaining nonimmigrant visas, while citizens of Ireland 
        do not receive the same privilege regarding entry into the 
        United States.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF IRELAND AS VISA WAIVER PILOT PROGRAM COUNTRY.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General and the Secretary of State 
shall jointly designate Ireland as a pilot program country under 
section 217(c)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1187(c)(1)) for purposes of the visa waiver pilot program described in 
section 217 of such Act.
    (b) Requirements Applicable to Continuing Qualification.--The 
provisions of section 217(c)(3)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality 
Act (8 U.S.C. 1187(c)(3)(A)) shall apply to the qualification of 
Ireland for designation as a pilot program country for each fiscal year 
after the fiscal year for which the designation required by subsection 
(a) is made.

                                 <all>