Sponsors (2)
The bill grants immediate lawful permanent residency to a named individual while preserving visa caps and requiring fee payment, trading a narrow, concrete benefit for one person against a slight loss of a visa slot for others plus fairness concerns and modest administrative work.
Vichai Sae Tung will receive immediate lawful permanent resident status, allowing him to live and work in the U.S. as of the law's enactment.
The government will collect the standard visa fees from the beneficiary, so taxpayers are not required to subsidize this special residency grant.
The bill offsets the grant by counting the green card against the beneficiary’s birth-country immigrant visa allocation, keeping overall immigrant visa numbers effectively neutral and limiting broader impacts on visa availability.
Applicants from the beneficiary’s birth country will effectively lose one available immigrant visa slot, which could delay or deny one person who otherwise would have received that visa.
Granting residency by private law for a named individual creates a perception (and risk) of favoritism or unequal treatment compared with people who must wait in the standard visa queue.
The Department of State will incur a small administrative burden to track and adjust the affected country’s visa allotment and notify consular posts of the change.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Grants lawful permanent resident status to Vichai Sae Tung (also known as Chai Chaowasaree) effective on the date of enactment provided he pays the required visa fees. Directs the Secretary of State to reduce the number of immigrant visas available to natives of the beneficiary’s country of birth by one in the current or a subsequent fiscal year.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Mazie Hirono · Last progress February 25, 2025