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 paragraph (1) 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 the fiscal year 2003, any amount that exceeds $460,000,000 may be made available only if a notification is submitted to Congress in accordance with the procedures applicable to reprogramming notifications under section 34 of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956. (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.— (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 injury, loss of life, or significant destruction of 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 on-line 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. (e) Fingerprint Checks.— (1) Effective not later than March 31, 1995, the Secretary of State shall in the ten countries with the highest volume of immigrant visa issuance for the most recent fiscal year for which data are available require the fingerprinting of applicants over sixteen years of age for immigrant visas. The Department of State shall submit records of such fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in order to ascertain whether such applicants previously have been convicted of a felony under State or Federal law in the United States, and shall pay all appropriate fees. (2) The Secretary shall prescribe and publish such regulations as may be necessary to implement the requirements of this subsection, and to avoid undue processing costs and delays for eligible immigrants and the United States Government. (f) 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 procedures authorized in this subsection. (g) Subsection (d) and (e) shall cease to have effect after May 1, 1998. * * * * * * *