# Nuclear Family Priority Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill would dramatically reshape how the U.S. immigration system handles family-based immigration by narrowing who counts as "immediate family" and significantly reducing the number of family members who can immigrate. Currently, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can sponsor various relatives including spouses, children, parents, and siblings. This bill would eliminate the ability to sponsor parents and would cut the overall number of family-based immigrants allowed into the country each year from around 480,000 to just 88,000. In practical terms, if you're a U.S. citizen or permanent resident hoping to bring your parents, adult siblings, or extended family members to live in America, this bill would make that much harder or impossible.

The bill creates a new visa category for parents of adult U.S. citizens, but with strict limitations. Parents could visit for up to five years, but they couldn't work, couldn't receive government benefits, and their adult children would be legally responsible for supporting them financially. Additionally, the adult child would have to provide health insurance for the parent at their own expense. This is essentially a temporary visitor status rather than a path to permanent residency or citizenship.

The changes would affect millions of people with family abroad who are currently waiting in immigration queues or planning to sponsor relatives. Extended family members like adult siblings, grandparents, and cousins would no longer have any legal immigration pathway to the United States. The bill would also reduce visa availability for spouses and children of permanent residents (green card holders), making the immigration process slower and more competitive even for these closer family relationships.

Nuclear Family Priority Act

Hice, Jody B.

Nuclear Family Priority Act This bill imposes limits on various types of family-sponsored immigration visas. The alien parents of U.S. citizens shall not qualify for visas for 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 aliens 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. Preference allocations (visa categories subject to various annual caps) for various family-sponsored visas shall be eliminated, 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.