VISAS.

SEC. 140. VISAS. (a) Surcharge for Processing Certain Visas.— (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of State is authorized to charge a fee or surcharge for processing machine readable nonimmigrant visas and machine readable combined border crossing identification cards and nonimmigrant visas. (2) Fees collected under the authority of subsection (a) shall be deposited as an offsetting collection to any Department of State appropriation, to recover the costs of providing consular services. Such fees shall remain available for obligation until expended. (3) For fiscal years 1994 and 1995, fees deposited under the authority of paragraph (2) may not exceed a total of $107,500,000. For subsequent fiscal years, fees may be collected under the authority of paragraph (1) only in such amounts as shall be prescribed in subsequent authorization Acts. (4) The provisions of the Act of August 18, 1856 (Revised Statutes 1726–28; 22 U.S.C. 4212–14), concerning accounting for consular fees shall not apply to fees collected under this subsection. (5) No fee or surcharge authorized under paragraph (1) may be charged to a citizen of a country that is a signatory as of the date of enactment of this Act to the North American Free Trade Agreement, except that the Secretary of State may charge such fee or surcharge to a citizen of such a country if the Secretary determines that such country charges a visa application or issuance fee to citizens of the United States. (b) Automated Visa Lookout System.— Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall implement an upgrade of all overseas visa lookout operations to computerized systems with automated multiple-name search capabilities. (c) Processing of Visas for Admission to the United States.— 108 STAT. 400 (1) (A) Beginning 24 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, whenever a United States consular officer issues a visa for admission to the United States, that official shall certify, in writing, that a check of the Automated Visa Lookout System, or any other system or list which maintains information about the excludability of aliens under the Immigration and Nationality Act, has been made and that there is no basis under such system for the exclusion of such alien. (B) If, at the time an alien applies for an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, the alien’s name is included in the Department of State’s visa lookout system and the consular officer to whom the application is made fails to follow the procedures in processing the application required by the inclusion of the alien’s name in such system, the consular officer’s failure shall be made a matter of record and shall be considered as a serious negative factor in the officer’s annual performance evaluation. (2) If an alien to whom a visa was issued as a result of a failure described in paragraph (1)(B) is admitted to the United States and there is thereafter probable cause to believe that the alien was a participant in a terrorist act causing serious loss of life or property in the United States, the Secretary of State shall convene an Accountability Review Board under the authority of title III of the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986. (d) Access to the Interstate Identification Index.— (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Department of State Consolidated Immigrant Visa Processing Center shall have online access, without payment of any fee or charge, to the Interstate Identification Index of the National Crime Information Center solely for the purpose of determining whether a visa applicant has a criminal history record indexed in such Index. Such access does not entitle the Department of State to obtain the full content of automated records through the Interstate Identification Index. To obtain the full content of a criminal history record, the Department shall submit a separate request to the Identification Records Section of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and shall pay the appropriate fee as provided for in the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1990 (Public Law 101–162). (2) The Department of State shall be responsible for all one-time start-up and recurring incremental non-personnel costs of establishing and maintaining the access authorized in paragraph (1). (3) The individual primarily responsible for the day-to-day implementation of paragraph (1) shall be an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation selected by the Department of State, and detailed to the Department on a fully reimbursable basis. (4) Not later than December 31, 1996, the Secretary of State and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall jointly submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, a report on the effectiveness of the procedure authorized in this subsection. 108 STAT. 401 (5) This subsection shall cease to have effect after December 31, 1997.