The SMART Act (H.R. 3466) would overhaul U.S. immigration by shifting toward a skills-based system, narrowing family sponsorship, eliminating the Diversity Visa Program, and capping refugee admissions. It creates a nationwide, points-based immigration process (Section 5) with a detailed scoring framework for age, education, English proficiency, job offers, investments, extraordinary achievement, and other factors. It also restructures family sponsorship to prioritize spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, while eliminating most other family-preference categories. The bill removes the Diversity Visa Program, imposes an annual refugee admissions cap of 50,000, and adds a new nonimmigrant category for certain alien parents of adult U.S. citizens. Overall, it intends to reduce and reallocate immigrant visas toward merit-based criteria and skilled workers, while limiting traditional family-based and diversity-based pathways. The bill includes significant procedural changes, including online points-based applications, periodic invitations to apply for visas, fees and penalties, protection against public benefits for a period after admission, and a defined process for handling petitions that exceed the annual visa cap. If enacted, it would dramatically reshape who can immigrate, how quickly they can do so, and under what conditions they can live and work in the United States.
Key Points
- 1Elimination of Diversity Visa Program and major changes to immigration categories: The bill repeals the Diversity Visa Program and redefines family sponsorship to focus on spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, removing many traditional family-preference categories and altering per-country and overall visa limits.
- 2Creation of a nationwide points-based immigration system: The Act sets up a new 30-point threshold (section 220) with detailed scoring for age, education (including STEM and foreign vs. U.S. degrees), English proficiency, extraordinary achievement, job offers, investment, and other factors. Applications are submitted online, assessed, and placed into an eligible pool; invitations to file petitions are issued periodically based on ranking and visa availability.
- 3Refugee admissions cap and related changes: The Act caps annual refugee admissions at 50,000 and redesignates the asylum/refugee provisions accordingly, altering who can be admitted and under what process.
- 4New nonimmigrant classification for alien parents of adult U.S. citizens: The bill creates a separate nonimmigrant category (W) allowing parents of U.S. citizens age 21 or older to enter for up to five years (renewable in 5-year blocks) with limits on work and public benefits, and employer health-insurance requirements.
- 5Fees, protections, and implementation timeline: It introduces new fees ($160 for initial online applications and $345 for petitions), adjusts fees for inflation every two years, prohibits receipt of many federal means-tested benefits for visa holders and their households for five years, and provides an effective date tied to the first fiscal year after enactment. It also invalidates family- and employment-based petitions eliminated by the bill filed after introduction, with limited exceptions for certain preexisting offers.