A bill to improve homeland security by enhancing the requirements for participation in the Visa Waiver Program, and for other purposes.
Visa Waiver Program Security Enhancement Act
This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act regarding the visa waiver program to prohibit a national of a program country who has traveled to Iraq or Syria at any time during the most recent five-year period from traveling to the United States without a visa.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may prohibit a national of a program country from traveling to the United States under the program if the national has traveled during the past five years to a country in which: (1) a designated foreign terrorist organization has a significant presence, and (2) prohibiting the national from traveling to the United States under the program is in U.S. national security interests.
An alien must, at the time of application for program admission, have a valid, unexpired, tamper-resistant, machine-readable passport that incorporates biometric and document authentication identifiers that comply with standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Any alien applying for program admission must have a passport that meets these requirements. (The exception for pre-October 26, 2005, passports under the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 is eliminated.)
A program country must: (1) enter into and comply with an agreement with the United States to assist in the operation of an air marshal program, and (2) comply with U.S. aviation and airport security standards.
A country that does not fully implement information sharing agreements shall be terminated from the program.
In determining whether to designate a country as a program country or whether a program country should retain its designation DHS shall consider:
DHS shall:
DHS may determine that a program country is in compliance with such biometric requirements if the country implements an agreement meeting specified criteria.
Program fee provisions are revised.
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S8242-8243)
checking server…
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line