Sponsors (3)
Official title: Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for a pause on the issuance of H-1B visas until certain limitations on the issuance thereof are implemented.
Introduced July 23, 2026 by Timothy Patrick Sheehy · Last progress July 23, 2026
The bill tightens immigration pathways and enforcement and aims to protect U.S. jobs and raise wages, but does so by sharply restricting legal visas, family accompaniment, student training, and status changes—imposing broad economic, humanitarian, and administrative costs on immigrants, employers, families, schools, and government agencies.
U.S. workers generally: new attestations, protections against recent layoffs, and rules that prioritize higher‑paid hires aim to protect American jobs and raise wages for new hires.
Employers and agencies: several provisions simplify and clarify eligibility and classification rules (e.g., narrower H classification, clarified federal hiring rules, and reduced certain administrative steps), reducing some hiring/HR complexity and compliance ambiguity.
Law enforcement and national-security stakeholders: tightening in‑country status-change and classification rules can reduce avenues for visa fraud and make enforcement priorities clearer.
Millions of noncitizens (prospective H‑1B applicants, many nonimmigrants, parolees, and adjustment seekers): face broad new bars on obtaining H visas, changing or adjusting status, and losing work authorization—causing job loss, blocked legal immigration pathways, and elevated removal risk.
U.S. employers and the economy: dramatic H‑1B limits (lower cap), very high wage floors, big new petition fees, shorter stays, bans on third‑party staffing and portability will raise hiring costs, produce talent shortages, delay projects, hurt small businesses and contractors, and weaken competitiveness.
Families of visa holders (spouses and minor children): lose dependent and follow‑to‑join eligibility for key classifications and face forced separation or relocation, disrupting schooling and family unity.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Suspends new H‑1B visas for 3 years, narrows H‑1B eligibility and dependents, raises employer wage/fee requirements, bars many student work authorizations, and blocks most status adjustments/changes.
Immediately stops issuance of new H‑1B visas for three years, raises employer requirements and fees for H‑1B hiring, narrows who may receive H‑1B status (excluding dependents), and imposes a $200,000 minimum wage and new attestations on petitioning employers. It also bars many student work authorizations, forbids most changes of nonimmigrant status and adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence, and prevents federal agencies from petitioning for or employing most nonimmigrant visa holders. The law takes effect on enactment and replaces or amends multiple Immigration and Nationality Act provisions to sharply reduce pathways for temporary skilled workers, student employment, status changes, and in‑country adjustment — while adding fees, numerical limits, and compliance obligations for employers and agencies.