S. 1178

One Hundred Fifth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight

An Act

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to modify and extend the visa

waiver pilot program, and to provide for the collection of data with respect

to the number of nonimmigrants who remain in the United States after the

expiration of the period of stay authorized by the Attorney General.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF VISA WAIVER PILOT PROGRAM.

Section 217(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act is amended by striking ‘‘1998.’’ and inserting ‘‘2000.’’.

SEC. 2. DATA ON NONIMMIGRANT OVERSTAY RATES.

(a) COLLECTION OF DATA.—Not later than the date that is

180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney

General shall implement a program to collect data, for each fiscal

year, regarding the total number of aliens within each of the classes

of nonimmigrant aliens described in section 101(a)(15) of the

Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)) whose

authorized period of stay in the United States terminated during

the previous fiscal year, but who remained in the United States

notwithstanding such termination.

(b) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than June 30, 1999, and not

later than June 30 of each year thereafter, the Attorney General

shall submit an annual report to the Congress providing numerical

estimates, for each country for the preceding fiscal year, of the

number of aliens from the country who are described in subsection

(a).

SEC. 3. QUALIFICATIONS FOR DESIGNATION AS PILOT PROGRAM

COUNTRY.

Section 217(c)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8

U.S.C. 1187(c)(2)), is amended to read as follows:

‘‘(2) QUALIFICATIONS.—Except as provided in subsection (g),

a country may not be designated as a pilot program country

unless the following requirements are met:

‘‘(A) LOW NONIMMIGRANT VISA REFUSAL RATE.—Either—

‘‘(i) the average number of refusals of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country

during—

‘‘(I) the two previous full fiscal years was less

than 2.0 percent of the total number of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that country which were granted or refused during those

years; and
S. 1178—2

‘‘(II) either of such two previous full fiscal

years was less than 2.5 percent of the total number

of nonimmigrant visitor visas for nationals of that

country which were granted or refused during that

year; or

‘‘(ii) such refusal rate for nationals of that country

during the previous full fiscal year was less than 3.0

percent.

‘‘(B) MACHINE READABLE PASSPORT PROGRAM.—The

government of the country certifies that it has or is in

the process of developing a program to issue machinereadable passports to its citizens.

‘‘(C) LAW ENFORCEMENT INTERESTS.—The Attorney

General determines that the United States law enforcement

interests would not be compromised by the designation

of the country.’’.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.