# Plain Language Summary: Nuclear Family Priority Act

This bill would dramatically reshape how the United States handles family-based immigration by narrowing who counts as "immediate family" and cutting the total number of family-sponsored immigrants allowed into the country each year. Currently, when U.S. citizens or permanent residents want to bring family members to live here, they can sponsor spouses, children, parents, and siblings through various immigration categories. This bill would eliminate the ability to sponsor parents and would slash the overall family immigration quota from around 480,000 people per year down to just 88,000 people per year—a reduction of roughly 80 percent.

The practical effect is that millions of people waiting to immigrate through family sponsorship would face much longer waits or would be unable to immigrate at all. For example, adult children who want to bring their elderly parents to the U.S. would no longer be able to do so through family immigration channels. Adult siblings could no longer sponsor each other. The bill would also eliminate several other family categories that currently exist, meaning aunts, uncles, cousins, and adult children of permanent residents would no longer have a path to family-based immigration. Only spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents would remain eligible under the traditional family sponsorship system.

The bill also creates a new temporary visa category for parents of adult U.S. citizens, but with strict conditions: they could stay for only five years at a time, couldn't work, couldn't receive any government benefits, and their adult children would be legally responsible for supporting them and providing health insurance. This essentially allows parents to visit for extended periods but not to immigrate permanently or become self-sufficient.

Nuclear Family Priority Act

Crane, Elijah

Nuclear Family Priority ActThis bill imposes limits on various types of family-sponsored immigration visas.The&nbsp;non-U.S. national&nbsp;(alien&nbsp;under federal law) parents of U.S. citizens&nbsp;shall not qualify for visas for&nbsp;immediate relatives, which are not subject to any direct numerical limits. Currently, the spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of citizens are considered immediate relatives.The bill also creates a nonimmigrant visa for such parents of citizens. Such non-U.S. nationals shall not be eligible for employment or any public benefits.The bill also reduces the baseline annual cap for family-sponsored visas from 480,000 to 88,000, and revises the methods for calculating the cap. Currently, the 480,000 cap may be adjusted depending on various factors but shall not be less than 226,000.The bill eliminates preference allocations (visa categories subject to various annual caps) for various family-sponsored visas, including those for the siblings and married children of citizens. The bill provides for a preference allocation for the unmarried children under 21 and spouses of permanent residents, subject to the 88,000 annual cap.