This bill grants immediate permanent resident status to Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez upon application, bypassing standard visa limitations.
Diana DeGette
Representative
CO-1
This bill grants Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez the authority to immediately apply for lawful permanent resident status in the United States, bypassing standard visa waiting periods. This special provision requires her to file the necessary application within two years of the Act becoming law. The law makes a technical adjustment to the annual visa count for her country of birth, but the benefit does not extend to her immediate family members.
Special Immigration Bill Grants Permanent Residency to One Named Individual, Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez
This legislation is a specific, targeted bill designed to grant permanent resident status to one person: Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez. Think of it as a legislative bypass lane. The bill essentially waives the usual long waiting lines and visa availability rules found in Section 201 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), allowing her to apply for an immigrant visa or adjust her status to a lawful permanent resident immediately.
The Legislative Bypass Lane
This isn't the standard immigration process; it’s a private relief measure. The bill states that Ms. Vizguerra-Ramirez can apply for permanent residency, provided she files all the required paperwork and pays the necessary fees within two years of the law taking effect. If she enters the U.S. before that application deadline, the government will treat that entry as lawful for the purpose of adjusting her status. This provides legal certainty and a clear path forward for her, sidestepping the bureaucratic backlogs that can take years or even decades for others.
Impact on the System and Family
While this is a huge benefit for the named individual, the bill makes a couple of necessary adjustments to the overall system. To account for this special grant, the Secretary of State is required to reduce the total number of immigrant visas available to people born in her home country by one, either in the current or next fiscal year. This is a technical move to keep the overall visa count accurate, meaning one future applicant from that country will lose a slot—a small, but real, consequence of using a specific legislative exception.
Crucially, the bill explicitly states that this benefit is non-transferable. Her natural parents, brothers, and sisters will not receive any special rights, privileges, or status under immigration law just because they are related to Jeanette Vizguerra-Ramirez. This provision prevents the special status from triggering the chain migration process, ensuring the relief remains strictly limited to the named individual.