Speech #1020205154

President. pending before the Senate are protocols to the existing Friendship. Commerce and Navigation Treaties with Finland (Treaty Doc. 10234) and Ireland (Treaty Doc. 10235). transmitted by President Bush on July 30. 1992. These protocols will establish the legal basis by which the United States may issue investor (E2) visas to qualified nationals of Finland and Ireland by supplementing the United StatesFinland and United StatesIreland friendship. commerce. and navigation [FCN] treaties to allow for entry and sojourn of investors. a benefit provided in the large majority of United States FCN treaties. United States investors are already eligible for Finnish and Irish visas that offer comparable benefits to those that would be accorded nationals of Finland and Ireland under E2 visa status. The protocols are a precondition to the issuance of a treaty investor visa to a Finnish or Irish national. Inasmuch as section 101(a)(15)(E)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act [INA]. 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E)(ii). permits issuance of an E2 visa only to a nonimmigrant who is "* * * entitled to enter the United States under and in pursuance of the provisions of a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the foreign state of which he is a national * * * solely to develop and direct the operations of an enterprise in which he has invested. or of an enterprise in which he is actively in the process of investing. a substantial amount of capital." Although the United States FCN treaties contain a provision qualifying the treaty partners nationals for E2 visas. the existing United StatesFinland and United StatesIreland treaties do not. The protocols are intended to overcome this deficiency. The Treaty protocols reflect language found in the INA and in U.S.