Mr. McVickar. There is a provision 243(g), section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provides that countries which—and I am just taking this from memory now—which do not accept either at all or readily, I suppose, deportees from the United States may not be granted, the nationals of those countries may not be granted immigration visas.
There is, however, a procedure for waiving these sanctions in individual cases, and as I recall the regulations, there was a procedure for waiving these sanctions in the cases of relatives of American citizens, and in the case of Soviet citizens who wanted to go to the United States.
So Soviet citizens who were relatives of American citizens could receive a waiver of these sanctions.
Is that clear?
Mr. Coleman. If the sanctions had not been waived, what would be the effect of refusing to waive the sanctions?
Mr. McVickar. If the sanction was not waived, the effect would be a denial, in effect, by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice, of authority to issue the visa.
The exact legality of this I am not sure, but I know that we couldn't issue the immigration visa because she would not be admitted at the port of entry.
Mr. Coleman. Would that mean that Marina could not have come to the United States?
Mr. McVickar. It would mean that she could not enter the United States, but it would not mean that she could not depart from the Soviet Union if she had a Soviet visa. And, presumably, maybe at some later time this——
Mr. Coleman. Couldn't she have gone to say, Brussels, for example, in Belgium?