I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5982
To provide visa availability for the Government Employee Immigrant Visa
program, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER18, 2023
Ms. K
AMLAGER-DOVE(for herself and Ms. SALAZAR) introduced the following
bill
O
CTOBER25, 2023
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To provide visa availability for the Government Employee
Immigrant Visa program, 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 ‘‘Granting Recognition 4
to Accomplished Talented Employees For Unwavering 5
Loyalty Act’’ or the ‘‘GRATEFUL Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-8
ings: 9
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(1) In 1952, with the enactment of the Immi-1
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), 2
Congress established an immigrant visa program to 3
reward foreign nationals who are United States Gov-4
ernment employees for their service to the United 5
States (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Government 6
Employee Immigrant Visa program’’). 7
(2) For 71 years, the Government Employee 8
Immigrant Visa program has allowed foreign nation-9
als with at least 15 years of exceptional service to 10
the United States to immigrate to the United States 11
with their families. 12
(3) Such foreign national employees of the 13
United States Government are the bulwark of 14
United States foreign policy, risking their lives year 15
after year through civil unrest, terrorism, natural 16
disasters, and war. 17
(4) The work of such foreign nationals— 18
(A) ensures the safety and well-being of 19
United States citizens; 20
(B) provides security and logistics for vis-21
iting delegations; and 22
(C) supports United States Government 23
operations abroad. 24
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(5) Such foreign nationals include employees of 1
the Department of State, the United States Agency 2
for International Development, the Department of 3
Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the 4
Department of Justice, the Department of Com-5
merce, and the Department of Agriculture. 6
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-7
gress that the United States should preserve the immi-8
grant visa program for foreign nationals who are employ-9
ees of the United States Government abroad or of the 10
American Institute in Taiwan, and who have provided ex-11
ceptional service over a long term to the United States, 12
by providing a dedicated allocation of visas for such em-13
ployees and their immediate family members when visas 14
are not immediately available in the corresponding visa 15
category. 16
SEC. 3. VISA AVAILABILITY FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE 17
IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Beginning in fiscal year 2024, 19
subject to subsection (b), visas shall be made available to 20
a special immigrant described in section 101(a)(27)(D) of 21
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 22
1101(a)(27)(D)) if a visa is not immediately available for 23
issuance to the special immigrant under section 203(b)(4) 24
of that Act (8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(4)). 25
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(b) NUMERICALLIMITATIONS.— 1
(1) F
ISCAL YEAR 2024.—For fiscal year 2024, 2
not more than 3,500 visas shall be made available 3
under subsection (a). 4
(2) S
UBSEQUENT FISCAL YEARS .—For fiscal 5
year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter, not more 6
than 3,000 visas shall be made available under sub-7
section (a). 8
(c) T
EMPORARYREDUCTION INDIVERSITYVISAS.— 9
Section 203(d)(2) of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Cen-10
tral America Relief Act (8 U.S.C. 1151 note; Public Law 11
105–100) is amended— 12
(1) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol-13
lows: 14
‘‘(2) In no case shall the reduction under paragraph 15
(1) for a fiscal year exceed the amount by which— 16
‘‘(A) the sum of— 17
‘‘(i) one-half of the total number of individ-18
uals described in subclauses (I), (II), (III), and 19
(IV) of section 309(c)(5)(C)(i) of the Illegal Im-20
migration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility 21
Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1101 note; Public Law 22
104–208) who have adjusted their status to 23
that of aliens lawfully admitted for permanent 24
residence under section 202 of the Nicaraguan 25
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Adjustment and Central American Relief Act 1
(Public Law 105–100; 8 U.S.C. 1255 note) as 2
of the end of the previous fiscal year; and 3
‘‘(ii) the total number of individuals de-4
scribed in section 101(a)(27)(D) of the Immi-5
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 6
1101(a)(27)(D)) for whom visas shall be made 7
available for the applicable fiscal year under 8
section 3(b) of the Granting Recognition to Ac-9
complished Talented Employees For Unwaver-10
ing Loyalty Act; exceeds 11
‘‘(B) the total of the reductions in available 12
visas under this subsection for all previous fiscal 13
years.’’; and 14
(2) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(3)(A) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in a fiscal year 16
following a fiscal year for which the total number of aliens 17
described in subparagraph (B) is zero. 18
‘‘(B) For a fiscal year, the total number of aliens de-19
scribed in this subparagraph is the total number of indi-20
viduals described in section 101(a)(27)(D) of the Immi-21
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(D)) 22
who have been issued visas during the previous fiscal year 23
under the Granting Recognition to Accomplished Talented 24
Employees For Unwavering Loyalty Act. 25
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‘‘(C) Nothing in this paragraph may be construed— 1
‘‘(i) to repeal, modify, or render permanently 2
inapplicable paragraph (1); or 3
‘‘(ii) to prevent the offsetting of the number of 4
visas described in that paragraph for the purpose of 5
providing visa availability for aliens described in sub-6
paragraph (B). 7
‘‘(4) In the event that the number of visas available 8
for a fiscal year under section 201(e) of the Immigration 9
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1151(e)) is reduced to a 10
number fewer than 50,000, not fewer than 3,000 visas 11
shall be made available for individuals described in section 12
3(a) of the Granting Recognition to Accomplished Tal-13
ented Employees For Unwavering Loyalty Act.’’. 14
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-15
tion or the amendments made by this section may be con-16
strued to modify the number of visas available under sec-17
tion 203(b)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 18
U.S.C. 1153(b)(4)) to special immigrants described in sec-19
tion 101(a)(27)(D) of that Act (8 U.S.C. 20
1101(a)(27)(D)). 21
Æ
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