WASHINGTON, March 13: The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that will allow undocumented immigrants already in the country to seek a visa that will give them permanent residency if they pay a $1,000 fee and have a close relative and employer as sponsor.

The measure was passed by the Republican-controlled house on a contested vote on Tuesday afternoon, barely getting a two-third majority.

It had previously been approved by the Senate, but consideration was delayed in the anti-immigrant climate fostered by the Sept-11 attacks, and a move is underfoot even now in the upper chamber to block it till another debate is held on it.

Illegal immigrants will be allowed to apply for residency if they have been living in the country since Dec 20, 2000, and entered into a qualifying relationship with a close relative or employer before April 15, 2001. They can apply till Nov 30, or four months after the attorney-general issues regulations on the policy, whichever date comes first.

The administration was keen on getting the bill passed by the house in view of President George Bush’s meeting next week with Mexican President Vincente Fox, who has been pushing for relaxed immigration rules for Latin American immigrants, who also, incidentally, form a sizable and in some constituencies a crucial vote bank here.

Thousands of out-of-status South Asians are also expected to benefit from the relaxation in rules. But because of the Dec 20, 2000, date from which the new measure takes effect, illegal immigrants who came before that date, were ordered to be deported, and then fled, bail will not be entitled to apply. Such immigrants are now the subject of a countrywide hunt.

A Pakistan embassy spokesman said they had no fix on the number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan who might be covered by the bill, but as far as the application of the measure went, it would definitely benefit Pakistanis also.