Partner with Korea Act

Bill: 117-s-1861
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Blunt, Roy [R-MO]
Introduced: 2021-05-26
Policy area: Immigration
Subjects: Asia

Employment discrimination and employee rights

Foreign labor

South Korea

Visas and passports
Latest action: action_date: 2021-05-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-05-26
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><strong>Partner with Korea Act</strong> </p> <p>This bill creates an E-4 nonimmigrant visa category for up to 15,000 nationals of South Korea each fiscal year who are coming to the United States solely to perform specialty occupation services, subject to various requirements. The 15,000 limit shall only apply to principal aliens and not the spouses or children of such aliens.</p> <p>A specialty occupation is one that requires the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher.</p>

tv_txt: II 117th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1861 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 26, 2021 Mr. Blunt (for himself and Ms. Hirono ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To provide high-skilled nonimmigrant visas for nationals of the Republic of Korea, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Partner with Korea Act . 2. Reciprocal visas for nationals of South Korea (a) In general Section 101(a)(15)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E) ) is amended— (1) by striking join him: (i) solely to carry and inserting the following: “join him— (i) solely to carry ; (2) by striking (ii) solely to develop and inserting the following: (ii) solely to develop ; (3) by striking or (iii) solely to perform and inserting the following: (iii) solely to perform ; and (4) by adding at the end the following: “or (iv) solely to perform services in a specialty occupation in the United States if the alien is a national of the Republic of Korea and with respect to whom the Secretary of Labor determines and certifies to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State that the intending employer has filed an attestation with the Secretary of Labor under section 212(t)(1); . (b) Attestation Section 212 of such Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1182 ), is amended— (1) in subsection (t), as added by section 402(b)(2) of the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act ( Public Law 108–77 ; 117 Stat. 941)— (A) by striking section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b1) or section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii) each place it appears and inserting subparagraph (E)(iii), (E)(iv), or (H)(i)(b1) of section 101(a)(15) ; and (B) in clauses (i)(II), (ii)(II), and (iii)(II) of paragraph (3)(C), by striking section 204, 214(c), 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b1), or 101(a)(15)(E)(iii) each place it appears and inserting subparagraph (E)(iii), (E)(iv), or (H)(1)(b1) of section 101(a)(15) or section 204 or 214(c) ; and (2) by redesignating subsection (t), as added by section 1(b)(2)(B) of Public Law 108–449 (118 Stat. 3470), as subsection (u). (c) Numerical limitation Section 214(g) of such Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1184(g) ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (12) (A) The Secretary of State may not approve more than 15,000 initial applications submitted for aliens described in section 101(a)(15)(E)(iv) in any fiscal year. (B) The numerical limitation under subparagraph (A) shall only apply to principal aliens and shall not apply to the spouses or children of such aliens. . (d) Specialty occupation defined Section 214(i)(1) of such Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1184(i)(1) ) is amended by striking section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), section 101(a)(15)(E)(iii), and paragraph (2), and inserting paragraph (2) of this subsection and subparagraphs (E)(iii), (E)(iv), and (H)(i)(b) of section 101(a)(15), .