Title: A bill to add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program.
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
This bill expands the E-3 visa program to cover Irish nationals. The E-3 visa is a nonimmigrant visa currently only available to Australian nationals coming to the United States for employment in a specialty occupation. For Irish E-3 initial applications, the Department of State may approve each fiscal year no more than 10,500 minus the number of Australian initial applications approved the previous fiscal year.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3869 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3869

          To add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 17, 2022

Mr. Durbin (for himself and Mr. Toomey) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
          To add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program.

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

SECTION 1. E-3 VISAS FOR IRISH NATIONALS.

    (a) In General.--Section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E)(iii)) is amended by inserting 
``or, on a basis of reciprocity as determined by the Secretary of 
State, a national of Ireland,'' after ``Australia''.
    (b) Employer Requirements.--Section 212 of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating the second subsection (t) (as added by 
        section 1(b)(2)(B) of Public Law 108-449 (118 Stat. 3470)) as 
        subsection (u); and
            (2) by adding at the end of subsection (t)(1) (as added by 
        section 402(b)(2) of Public Law 108-77 (117 Stat. 941)) the 
        following:
            ``(E) In the case of an attestation filed with respect to a 
        national of Ireland described in section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii), 
        the employer is, and will remain during the period of 
        authorized employment of such Irish national, a participant in 
        good standing in the E-Verify program described in section 
        403(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant 
        Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note).''.
    (c) Application Allocation.--Paragraph (11) of section 214(g) of 
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(11)) is amended 
to read as follows:
    ``(11)(A) The Secretary of State may approve initial applications 
submitted for aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii) only as 
follows:
            ``(i) For applicants who are nationals of the Commonwealth 
        of Australia, not more than 10,500 for a fiscal year.
            ``(ii) For applicants who are nationals of Ireland, not 
        more than a number equal to the difference between 10,500 and 
        the number of applications approved in the prior fiscal year 
        for aliens who are nationals of the Commonwealth of Australia.
    ``(B) The approval of an application described under subparagraph 
(A)(ii) shall be deemed for numerical control purposes to have occurred 
on September 30 of the prior fiscal year.
    ``(C) The numerical limitation under subparagraph (A) shall only 
apply to principal aliens and not to the spouses or children of such 
aliens.''.
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