Title: 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]
[H.R. 8761 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8761

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            August 30, 2022

  Mr. Neal (for himself and Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania) introduced the 
  following bill; which was 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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