H.R. 5460 would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to waive visa requirements for foreign visitors from certain Caribbean countries who are seeking to enter the U.S. Virgin Islands for a stay of up to 45 days. DHS would need to consult with the Departments of the Interior and State and the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands to determine whether it has developed adequate arrival and departure control systems to ensure the waiver would not threaten the security of the United States. Countries deemed to threaten security or that increase fraud or abuse of the nonimmigrant waiver system would be excluded from the waiver program established in the bill.
CBO expects that enacting the bill would decrease revenues because fewer people would require visas issued by the Department of State. Although most visa fees are retained by the department and spent without further appropriation, some fees are recorded as revenues and deposited into the Treasury. The bill would direct DHS within one year of enactment to establish an administrative processing fee to be collected from foreign visitors seeking to enter the U.S. Virgin Islands under the visa waiver program. The fee, which would be recorded as a revenue would be set at a level to recoup processing costs and offset reduced collections of the nonimmigrant visa fee or electronic travel authorization fee that would otherwise be collected from foreign visitors. CBO estimates that, on net, those changes would result in an insignificant increase in revenues in each year and over the 2022-2032 period.
