I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5155
To establish a new nonimmigrant category for alien relatives of United States
citizens and lawful permanent residents seeking to enter the United
States temporarily for family purposes, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AUGUST4, 2023
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself, Mrs. BICE, Mr. HIMES, and Ms. SALAZAR) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary
A BILL
To establish a new nonimmigrant category for alien relatives
of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents
seeking to enter the United States temporarily for family
purposes, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Temporary Family 4
Visitation Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FAMILY PURPOSE NONIMMIGRANT VISAS FOR REL-1
ATIVES OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND 2
LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENTS SEEKING 3
TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES TEMPO-4
RARILY. 5
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF NEWNONIMMIGRANTVISA 6
C
ATEGORY.—Section 101(a)(15)(B) of the Immigration 7
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(B)) is amend-8
ed by striking ‘‘and who is visiting the United States tem-9
porarily for business or temporarily for pleasure;’’ and in-10
serting ‘‘and who is visiting the United States temporarily 11
for— 12
‘‘(i) business; 13
‘‘(ii) pleasure; or 14
‘‘(iii) family purposes;’’. 15
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS APPLICABLE TOFAMILYPUR-16
POSEVISAS.—Section 214 of the Immigration and Na-17
tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184) is amended by adding at 18
the end the following: 19
‘‘(s) R
EQUIREMENTSAPPLICABLE TOFAMILYPUR-20
POSEVISAS.— 21
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection and sec-22
tion 101(a)(15)(B)(iii): 23
‘‘(A) F
AMILY PURPOSES.—The term ‘fam-24
ily purposes’ means any visit by a relative for 25
a social, occasional, or any other purpose. 26
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‘‘(B) RELATIVE.—The term ‘relative’ 1
means the spouse, child, son, daughter, grand-2
child, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, 3
sibling, uncle, aunt, niece, or nephew of a cit-4
izen of the United States or an alien lawfully 5
admitted for permanent residence. 6
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENT.—A relative seeking admis-7
sion pursuant to a visa issued under section 8
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) is inadmissible unless— 9
‘‘(A) the individual petitioning for such ad-10
mission, or an additional sponsor, has sub-11
mitted to the Secretary of Homeland Security 12
an undertaking under section 213 in the form 13
of a declaration of support; 14
‘‘(B) such relative has obtained, for the 15
duration of his or her stay in the United States, 16
a short-term travel medical insurance policy or 17
an existing health insurance policy that pro-18
vides coverage for international medical ex-19
penses; and 20
‘‘(C) such relative expresses intent to leave 21
the United States at the conclusion of the pe-22
riod of authorized admission. 23
‘‘(3) P
ERIOD OF AUTHORIZED ADMISSION .— 24
The period of authorized admission for a non-25
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immigrant described in section 101(a)(15)(B)(iii) 1
shall not exceed 90 days per calendar year. 2
‘‘(4) P
ETITIONER REQUIREMENT .— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An individual may not 4
petition for the admission of a relative as a 5
nonimmigrant described in section 6
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) if the individual previously 7
petitioned for the admission of such a relative 8
who— 9
‘‘(i) was admitted to the United 10
States pursuant to a visa issued under that 11
section as a result; and 12
‘‘(ii) overstayed his or her period of 13
authorized admission. 14
‘‘(B) P
REVIOUS PETITIONERS .—An indi-15
vidual filing an affidavit in support of the ad-16
mission of a relative as a nonimmigrant de-17
scribed in section 101(a)(15)(B)(iii) who has 18
previously provided an affidavit of support for 19
such a relative shall certify to the Secretary of 20
Homeland Security that the relative whose ad-21
mission the individual previously supported did 22
not overstay his or her period of authorized ad-23
mission or provide an explanation of why the 24
relative’s overstay was due to extraordinary cir-25
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cumstances beyond the control of the relative. A 1
certification under this subparagraph shall be 2
subject to section 1001 of title 18, United 3
States Code. 4
‘‘(C) W
AIVER.—The Secretary of Home-5
land Security may waive the application of sec-6
tion 212(a)(9)(B) in the case of a non-7
immigrant described in section 8
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) who overstayed his or her pe-9
riod of authorized admission due to extraor-10
dinary circumstances beyond the control of the 11
nonimmigrant.’’. 12
(c) R
ESTRICTION ONCHANGE OFSTATUS.—Section 13
248(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 14
U.S.C. 1258(a)(1)) is amended to read as follows: 15
‘‘(1) an alien classified as a nonimmigrant 16
under subparagraph (B)(iii), (C), (D), (K), or (S) of 17
section 101(a)(15),’’. 18
(d) F
AMILYPURPOSEVISAELIGIBILITYWHILE 19
A
WAITINGIMMIGRANTVISA.—Notwithstanding section 20
214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 21
1184(b)), a nonimmigrant described in section 22
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) of that Act who has been classified as 23
an immigrant under section 201 of that Act (8 U.S.C. 24
1151) and is awaiting the availability of an immigrant visa 25
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subject to the numerical limitations under section 203 of 1
that Act (8 U.S.C. 1153) may be admitted pursuant to 2
a family purpose visa, in accordance with section 214(s) 3
of that Act, if the individual is otherwise eligible for ad-4
mission. An alien admitted under section 5
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 6
(8 U.S.C. 1184(b)) shall not be considered to have been 7
admitted to the United States for purposes of section 8
245(a) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1255(a)). 9
(e) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act, 10
or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed 11
as limiting the authority of immigration officers to refuse 12
to admit to the United States an applicant under section 13
101(a)(15)(B)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 14
(8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(B)) who fails to meet one or more 15
of the criteria under section 214(s) of that Act, or who 16
is inadmissible under section 212(a) of that Act. 17
Æ
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