Sponsor
Donald Sternoff Beyer
Representative · D-VA
Representative · D-VA
The bill trades a significant, near-term increase in nurse staffing and improved patient access in federally designated shortage areas for potential longer-term impacts on domestic nursing incentives, increased administrative/compliance costs, and redistribution of visa allocations among states.
Hospitals and clinics in HRSA-designated shortage areas (especially rural and low-income communities) can hire up to 20,000 additional international nurses per year, immediately increasing staffing levels and reducing patient wait times and unsafe workloads.
Employers (health systems and hospitals) can recruit international nurses more quickly, lowering vacancy-driven overtime and burnout among existing staff and easing operational strain.
Requiring facilities that sponsor visas to adopt provider-to-patient staffing ratio policies can standardize staffing practices and promote safer nurse workloads across participating facilities.
U.S. healthcare workers and nursing students may face reduced incentives to train or be hired domestically if a large share of staffing needs are met by nonimmigrant nurses over time.
States that previously received guaranteed visa allocations under a state-by-state formula could be disadvantaged by concentrating visas in HRSA-designated shortage areas.
Hospitals and clinics will face compliance burdens and costs to develop, implement, and document provider-to-patient staffing ratio policies required to sponsor visas.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Raises annual nonimmigrant nurse visas from 500 to 20,000, restricts them to HRSA-designated shortage areas, and requires hiring facilities to adopt provider-to-patient staffing ratio policies; regs due within 1 year.
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide nonimmigrant status to nurses working in certain facilities.
Introduced February 4, 2026 by Donald Sternoff Beyer · Last progress February 4, 2026
Increases the annual cap on nonimmigrant visas for nurses from 500 to 20,000 and restricts those visas to nurses who will work in HRSA-designated health professional shortage areas. It removes the previous state-by-state allocation, requires facilities that hire under this program to adopt a provider-to-patient staffing ratio policy, and directs HHS and State to issue implementing regulations within one year; the changes take effect on enactment and apply to specified H-1C/H-type petitions.