Congress: 112 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel
Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).
Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for HR 5850.
Sponsor: Sherman, Brad (D-California)
Visa Waiver for Israel Act of 2012 - Includes Israel in the visa waiver program upon the Secretary of Homeland Security's (DHS) determination that Israel: (1) has entered into an agreement with the United States to report, or make available through Interpol or other means, information about passport theft or loss; (2) has entered into an information sharing agreement with the United States regarding whether Israeli citizens and nationals traveling to the United States represent a U.S. security threat; (3) cooperates with the U.S. government on counterterrorism initiatives, information sharing, and preventing terrorist travel; (4) issues all new and reissued passports with biometric identifiers; and (5) has made every reasonable effort, without jeopardizing Israeli security, to ensure that reciprocal privileges are extended to all U.S. citizens.
Allows Israeli citizens to enter the US without a visa if the Department of Homeland Security certifies that Israel meets five conditions: sharing information about lost or stolen passports, exchanging data on security threats, cooperating on counterterrorism, issuing biometric passports, and granting reciprocal entry privileges to US citizens.
Visa waiver status is a concrete diplomatic privilege that reflects US-Israel relations. This bill conditions that privilege on security and information-sharing benchmarks, though enforcement and verification of these conditions would depend on DHS certification.