Public Description:
H.R. 300, the Visa Wavier for Israel Act, would deem the country of Israel to be a program country for the visa waiver program (VWP), effective once Israel has complied with various State Department and Homeland Security requests that focus on national security and information sharing. The VWP allows citizens from select qualifying countries to enter the U.S. for tourism or business for 90 days or less without first obtaining a visa. This bill exempts Israel from the VWP requirement of having a low nonimmigrant visa refusal rate during previous fiscal years in order to qualify for the program. Those rates specifically refer to the share of visa applications that are denied because the applying aliens are deemed likely to overstay their visas. Israel has a refusal rate that is currently too high to otherwise qualify for the program. Therefore, allowing Israeli citizens to travel to the U.S. without obtaining a visa would likely result in an increased amount of visa overstays and an increase in illegal aliens living in the United States.
