I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 362
To establish the Virgin Islands visa waiver program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY13, 2025
Ms. P
LASKETTintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish the Virgin Islands visa waiver program.
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 ‘‘Virgin Islands Visa 4
Waiver Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. ADDITION OF VIRGIN ISLANDS VISA WAIVER TO 6
GUAM AND NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS 7
VISA WAIVER. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 212(l) of the Immigration 9
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(l)) is amended to read 10
as follows: 11
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‘‘(l) GUAM ANDNORTHERNMARIANAISLANDSVISA 1
W
AIVERPROGRAM; VIRGINISLANDSVISAWAIVERPRO-2
GRAM.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The requirement of sub-4
section (a)(7)(B)(i) may be waived by the Secretary 5
of Homeland Security, in the case of an alien apply-6
ing for admission as a nonimmigrant visitor for busi-7
ness or pleasure and solely for entry into and stay 8
in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern 9
Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United 10
States, for a period not to exceed 45 days, if the 11
Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation 12
with the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of 13
State, and the Governor of Guam and the Governor 14
of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-15
lands, or the Governor of the Virgin Islands of the 16
United States, as the case may be, determines 17
that— 18
‘‘(A) an adequate arrival and departure 19
control system has been developed in Guam and 20
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-21
lands, or the Virgin Islands of the United 22
States; and 23
‘‘(B) such a waiver does not represent a 24
threat to the welfare, safety, or security of the 25
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United States or its territories and common-1
wealths. 2
‘‘(2) A
LIEN WAIVER OF RIGHTS .—An alien may 3
not be provided a waiver under this subsection un-4
less the alien has waived any right— 5
‘‘(A) to review or appeal under this Act an 6
immigration officer’s determination as to the 7
admissibility of the alien at the port of entry 8
into Guam or the Commonwealth of the North-9
ern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of 10
the United States; or 11
‘‘(B) to contest, other than on the basis of 12
an application for withholding of removal under 13
section 241(b)(3) of this Act or under the Con-14
vention Against Torture, or an application for 15
asylum if permitted under section 208 of this 16
Act, any action for removal of the alien. 17
‘‘(3) R
EGULATIONS.—All necessary regulations 18
to implement this subsection shall be promulgated 19
by the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consulta-20
tion with the Secretary of the Interior and the Sec-21
retary of State. The promulgation of such regula-22
tions shall be considered a foreign affairs function 23
for purposes of section 553(a) of title 5, United 24
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States Code. At a minimum, such regulations should 1
include, but not necessarily be limited to— 2
‘‘(A) a listing of all countries whose na-3
tionals may obtain the waivers provided by this 4
subsection; and 5
‘‘(B) any bonding requirements for nation-6
als of some or all of those countries who may 7
present an increased risk of overstays or other 8
potential problems, if different from such re-9
quirements otherwise provided by law for non-10
immigrant visitors. 11
‘‘(4) F
ACTORS.—In determining whether to 12
grant or continue providing the waiver under this 13
subsection to nationals of any country, the Secretary 14
of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Sec-15
retary of the Interior and the Secretary of State, 16
shall consider all factors that the Secretary deems 17
relevant, including electronic travel authorizations, 18
procedures for reporting lost and stolen passports, 19
repatriation of aliens, rates of refusal for non-20
immigrant visitor visas, overstays, exit systems, and 21
information exchange. 22
‘‘(5) S
USPENSION.—The Secretary of Home-23
land Security shall monitor the admission of non-24
immigrant visitors to Guam and the Commonwealth 25
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of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Is-1
lands of the United States, under this subsection. If 2
the Secretary determines that such admissions have 3
resulted in an unacceptable number of visitors from 4
a country remaining unlawfully in Guam or the 5
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or 6
the Virgin Islands of the United States, unlawfully 7
obtaining entry to other parts of the United States, 8
or seeking withholding of removal or asylum, or that 9
visitors from a country pose a risk to law enforce-10
ment or security interests of Guam or the Common-11
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or of the 12
Virgin Islands of the United States, or of the United 13
States (including the interest in the enforcement of 14
the immigration laws of the United States), the Sec-15
retary shall suspend the admission of nationals of 16
such country under this subsection. The Secretary of 17
Homeland Security may in the Secretary’s discretion 18
suspend the Guam and Northern Mariana Islands 19
visa waiver program, or the Virgin Islands visa waiv-20
er program, at any time, on a country-by-country 21
basis, for other good cause. 22
‘‘(6) A
DDITION OF COUNTRIES .—The Governor 23
of Guam and the Governor of the Commonwealth of 24
the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Governor of 25
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the Virgin Islands of the United States, may request 1
the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of 2
Homeland Security to add a particular country to 3
the list of countries whose nationals may obtain the 4
waiver provided by this subsection, and the Sec-5
retary of Homeland Security may grant such request 6
after consultation with the Secretary of the Interior 7
and the Secretary of State, and may promulgate reg-8
ulations with respect to the inclusion of that country 9
and any special requirements the Secretary of 10
Homeland Security, in the Secretary’s sole discre-11
tion, may impose prior to allowing nationals of that 12
country to obtain the waiver provided by this sub-13
section.’’. 14
(b) R
EGULATIONSDEADLINE.—Not later than one 15
year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 16
of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary 17
of the Interior and the Secretary of State, shall promul-18
gate any necessary regulations to implement the waiver 19
provided in the amendment made by subsection (a) for the 20
Virgin Islands of the United States. 21
(c) W
AIVERCOUNTRIES.—The regulations described 22
in subsection (b) shall include a listing of all member or 23
associate member countries of the Caribbean Community 24
whose nationals may obtain, on a country-by-country 25
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basis, the waiver provided by this section, except that such 1
regulations shall not provide for a listing of any country 2
if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that 3
such country’s inclusion on such list would represent a 4
threat to the welfare, safety, or security of the United 5
States or its territories and commonwealths, or would in-6
crease fraud or abuse of the nonimmigrant visa system. 7
(d) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 8
(1) D
OCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS .—Section 9
212(a)(7)(B)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality 10
Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(7)(B)(iii)) is amended to 11
read as follows: 12
‘‘(iii) S
PECIAL VISA WAIVER PRO -13
GRAMS.—For a provision authorizing waiv-14
er of clause (i) in the case of visitors to 15
Guam or the Commonwealth of the North-16
ern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands 17
of the United States, see subsection (l).’’. 18
(2) A
DMISSION OF NONIMMIGRANTS .—Section 19
214(a)(1) of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(a)(1)) is 20
amended by striking ‘‘Guam or the Commonwealth 21
of the Northern Mariana Islands’’ each place such 22
term appears and inserting ‘‘Guam or the Common-23
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Vir-24
gin Islands of the United States’’. 25
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(e) FEES.—The Secretary of Homeland Security 1
shall establish an administrative processing fee to be 2
charged and collected from individuals seeking to enter the 3
Virgin Islands of the United States in accordance with sec-4
tion 212(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 5
U.S.C. 1182(l)), as amended by this Act. Such fee shall 6
be set at a level that will ensure recovery of the full costs 7
of such processing and any additional costs associated 8
with the administration of the fees collected. 9
Æ
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