II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1616

To establish a visa waiver pilot program for nationals of Korea who are

traveling in tour groups to the United States.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 14 (legislative day, MARCH 13), 1996

Mr. INOUYE (for himself, Mr. MURKOWSKI, Mr. AKAKA, and Mr. STEVENS)

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To establish a visa waiver pilot program for nationals of

Korea who are traveling in tour groups to the United States.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. KOREA VISA WAIVER PILOT PROGRAM.

4 (a) CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.—The Congress finds

5 that—

6 (1) travel and tourism play a major role in re7 ducing the United States unfavorable balance of

8 trade;
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1 (2) the characteristics of the Korean travel

2 market do not permit long-term planning for longer

3 trips;

4 (3) applications for United States visas cannot

5 now be processed in a reasonable period of time;

6 (4) the Secretary of State has attempted to

7 solve the problem by adding additional staff to the

8 consular section at the United States Embassy in

9 Seoul;

10 (5) unfortunately, these additions have not re11 sulted in any discernable improvement in reducing

12 visa processing delays;

13 (6) further, it is unlikely, given the current fis14 cal environment, to expect funding to be available

15 for further staff additions in sufficient numbers to

16 effect any significant improvement in the time re17 quired to process visa applications;

18 (7) most of the nations of the South Pacific,

19 Europe, and Canada do not currently require Kore20 ans entering their countries to have a visa, thus pro21 viding them with a serious competitive advantage in

22 the tourism industry;

23 (8) the United States territory of Guam has

24 been permitted by the United States Government to

25 eliminate visa requirements for Koreans visiting
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1 Guam, with resultant impressive increases in travel

2 and tourism from citizens of the Republic of Korea;

3 (9) any application under existing procedures to

4 add the Republic of Korea, or any other nation to

5 the group of favored nations exempted from United

6 States visa regulations, would require many years

7 during which time the United States could well lose

8 its competitive advantages in attracting travel and

9 tourism from the Republic of Korea;

10 (10) the Republic of Korea, as a gesture of

11 goodwill, has already unilaterally exempted United

12 States tourists who seek to enter the Republic of

13 Korea from the requirement of obtaining a visa; and

14 (11) growth in Korean travel to the United

15 States has not kept pace with growth in travel to

16 non-United States destinations, and cumbersome

17 and time-consuming visa processing procedures are

18 widely recognized as the cause of this loss of market

19 share and competitiveness with alternative destina20 tions.

21 (b) PILOT PROGRAM.—The Secretary of State and

22 the Attorney General jointly shall establish a pilot project

23 (in this section referred to as the ‘‘pilot program’’) within

24 six months of the date of the enactment of this Act under

25 which the requirement of paragraph (7)(B)(i)(II) of sec-
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1 tion 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8

2 U.S.C. 1182(a)(7)(B)(i)(II)) is waived during the pilot

3 program period in the case of any alien who meets the

4 following requirements:

5 (1) NATIONAL OF PILOT PROGRAM COUNTRY.—

6 The alien is a national of, and presents a passport

7 issued by, the Republic of Korea. The Republic of

8 Korea is urged to provide machine readable pass9 ports to its citizens in the near future.

10 (2) SEEKING ENTRY AS TOURIST.—The alien is

11 applying for admission to the United States during

12 the pilot program period as a nonimmigrant visitor

13 for pleasure (as described in section 101(a)(15)(B)

14 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.

15 1101(a)(15)(B))), as part of a group tour to the

16 United States.

17 (3) PERIOD OF STAY.—The alien seeks to stay

18 in the United States for a period of not more than

19 15 days.

20 (4) EXECUTES IMMIGRATION FORMS.—The

21 alien before the time of such admission completes

22 such immigration form as the Attorney General shall

23 establish.

24 (5) ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES.—If ar25 riving by sea or air, the alien arrives at the port of
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1 entry into the United States on a carrier which has

2 entered into an agreement with the Immigration and

3 Naturalization Service to guarantee transport of the

4 alien out of the United States if the alien is found

5 inadmissible or deportable by an immigration officer.

6 (6) NOT A SAFETY THREAT.—The alien has

7 been determined not to represent a threat to the

8 welfare, health, safety, or security of the United

9 States.

10 (7) NO PREVIOUS VIOLATION.—If the alien pre11 viously was admitted without a visa under this sec12 tion, the alien must not have failed to comply with

13 the conditions of any previous admission as such a

14 nonimmigrant.

15 (8) ROUND-TRIP TICKET.—The alien is in pos16 session of a round-trip transportation ticket (unless

17 this requirement is waived by the Attorney General

18 under regulations).

19 (c) WAIVER OF RIGHTS.—An alien may not be pro20 vided a waiver under the pilot program unless the alien

21 has waived any right—

22 (1) to review or appeal under this Act of an im23 migration officer’s determination as to the admissi24 bility of the alien at the port of entry into the Unit25 ed States, or
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1 (2) to contest, other than on the basis of an ap2 plication for asylum, any action for deportation

3 against the alien.

4 (d) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—Notwithstanding

5 any other provision of this section, the Attorney General

6 and the Secretary of State, acting jointly, may terminate

7 the pilot program under this section on or after a date

8 which is one year after the date of the establishment of

9 the pilot program if—

10 (1) during the preceding fiscal year, the over11 stay rate for nationals of the Republic of Korea en12 tering the United States under the pilot program ex13 ceeds the overstay rate of such nationals entering

14 the United States with valid visas; and

15 (2) the Attorney General and the Secretary of

16 State have jointly determined that the pilot program

17 is leading to a significant increase in the number of

18 overstays by such nationals.

19 (e) SPECIAL BOND AND NOTIFICATION REQUIRE20 MENTS FOR TOUR OPERATORS.—

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Nationals of the Republic of

22 Korea may not enter the United States under the

23 terms of this section unless they are accompanied

24 for the duration of their authorized admission period
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1 by a tour operator who has fulfilled the following re2 quirements:

3 (A) The tour operator has posted a bond

4 of $200,000 with the Secretary of State.

5 (B) The Secretary of State, under such

6 regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, has

7 approved an application by the tour operator to

8 escort tour groups to the United States.

9 (C) The tour operator provides the name,

10 address, birthdate, passport number, and citi11 zenship of all prospective tour group members

12 to the Secretary of State no less than one busi13 ness day prior to the departure date of the

14 group, under such regulations as he may pre15 scribe, in order to determine that the prospec16 tive travelers do not represent a threat to the

17 welfare, health, safety, and security of the Unit18 ed States.

19 (D) The tour operator excludes from the

20 tour group any person whom the Secretary of

21 State denies permission to travel to the United

22 States.

23 (E) The tour operator provides written cer24 tification or other such evidence prescribed by

25 the Secretary of State and Attorney General
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1 which documents the return to Korea of each

2 tour group member.

3 (2) FORFEITURE OF BONDS.—Bonds posted in

4 accordance with this subsection shall be forfeited in

5 whole or in part and a tour operator’s authorization

6 to escort tours to the United States may be sus7 pended or revoked if the Secretary of State finds

8 that the tour operator—

9 (A) has failed to disclose a material fact in

10 connection with the application required under

11 paragraph (1)(B);

12 (B) fails to comply with the advance notifi13 cation and refusal requirements of paragraphs

14 (1)(C) and (1)(D);

15 (C) has failed to take adequate steps to en16 sure that visitors who are being escorted to the

17 United States under the terms of an approved

18 application return to their country of residence;

19 or

20 (D) is found at any time to have commit21 ted a felony or any offense under the immigra22 tion laws of the United States.

23 (f) PARTICIPATION BY TOUR AGENTS.—The Sec24 retary of State shall periodically review the overstay rate

25 of nationals of the Republic of Korea that corresponds to
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1 each tour agent participating in the program under this

2 section. The Secretary may terminate the participation in

3 the program of any tour agent if the Secretary determines

4 that the corresponding overstay rate is excessive.

5 (g) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—

6 (1) GROUP TOUR.—The term ‘‘group tour’’

7 means travelers who take advantage of group-pur8 chased hotel or airfare packages, as guided, super9 vised, and arranged by a tour agent in the Republic

10 of Korea approved or licensed by the Department of

11 State.

12 (2) OVERSTAY RATE.—The term ‘‘overstay

13 rate’’ means, during a specified period of time, the

14 proportion that the number of aliens remaining in

15 the United States after the expiration of their visas

16 bears to the total number of aliens entering the

17 United States during that period of time.

18 (3) PILOT PROGRAM PERIOD.—The term ‘‘pilot

19 program period’’ means the three-year period imme20 diately following the establishment of the pilot pro21 gram.

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