Sponsors (12)
The bill trades a narrowed, more administrable U.S. nonimmigrant visa system and short‑term protection for some domestic workers for broad restrictions that sharply reduce legal employment and family‑unity pathways for immigrants, harm employers, universities, and innovation, and create substantial legal and administrative disruption.
U.S. workers (especially middle‑class and entry‑level workers) face reduced competition for certain jobs because caps, pauses, and restrictions limit new nonimmigrant work visa admissions, potentially preserving some jobs and wages.
DHS and consular adjudicators may have simpler, more uniform rules to apply (fewer categories, fewer exceptions), which could reduce some adjudicative complexity and routine administrative burden.
Workers in high‑wage occupations may face less competition because the bill prioritizes visas tied to higher wages (e.g., minimum wage thresholds for certain approvals).
Employers (especially tech, startups, research institutions, and small businesses) will lose access to H‑1B and other skilled foreign talent due to pauses, sharply lower caps, higher per‑petition fees, shortened maximum stays, elimination of the lottery, and other restrictions — raising labor costs, slowing projects, and harming competitiveness.
Spouses and minor children of nonimmigrant workers would lose automatic derivative status, threatening family unity, forcing separations or departures, and reducing families' ability to live and work together in the U.S.
International students and exchange visitors (F‑1, M‑1, J‑1) would lose curricular/optional practical training and other work authorizations, undercutting study‑to‑work pathways, shrinking university enrollment/revenue, and reducing internship and training opportunities.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Stops new H‑1B visas for three years, tightens H‑1B rules/fees, ends H‑1B derivatives, bans many student work authorizations, and blocks change/adjustment of status.
Introduced April 22, 2026 by Eli Crane · Last progress April 22, 2026
Bans issuance of new H‑1B visas for three years and sharply tightens the H‑1B program and related immigration benefits immediately on enactment. It lowers the annual H‑1B cap to 25,000, cuts maximum continuous H‑1B stay to three years, imposes a $100,000 employer fee per H‑1B petition, ends statutory derivative H dependents, eliminates the H‑1B lottery in favor of wage/filing order, bars federal agencies from filing or employing H nonimmigrants, forbids most student and exchange-visitor work authorization, and largely eliminates change-of-status and in‑country adjustment to lawful permanent resident status.