Sponsor
Mike Kennedy
Representative · R-UT
Representative · R-UT
The bill makes it cheaper and more legally certain for health care employers to sponsor certain direct‑care H‑1B workers and clarifies the rules for new filings, but it raises wage‑based prioritization and restrictions that increase costs and reduce sponsorship opportunities for small employers, third‑party placements, and lower‑paid foreign workers while reducing fee revenue and creating potential administrative and legal complexity.
Hospitals and other health care facilities will face lower H‑1B filing costs and clearer exemptions for eligible direct patient care roles, making it cheaper and more predictable for them to sponsor hard‑to‑fill clinical staff and potentially increasing staffing for patient care.
Eligible foreign health care workers pay lower upfront immigration costs and face a clearer path to employer sponsorship for qualifying direct patient care positions.
The law creates a uniform exemption for certain health care H‑1B filings that overrides later fee-imposing proclamations or regulations, reducing regulatory uncertainty for employers and sponsors.
Small employers and lower‑wage sponsors (and the foreign professionals they would hire) may lose the ability to obtain H‑1B sponsorship or be forced to raise wages, reducing job opportunities and staffing flexibility for many firms.
Employers that place H‑1B workers at third‑party worksites (including consulting/contracting firms) face shorter, more uncertain one‑year terms and greater compliance/operational costs, and H‑1B workers may see fewer consulting or third‑party assignment opportunities.
Prioritizing higher‑paying petitions over earlier filings disadvantages small employers and lower‑wage petitioners who filed earlier but offer less pay, concentrating approval toward wealthier employers and larger firms.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Raises H‑1B wage floor, limits third‑party worksite visas and durations, prioritizes higher‑paying petitions, and waives fees for certain health care H‑1B petitions with documented recruitment efforts.
Official title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program, with exceptions for certain vital professions, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 16, 2026 by Mike Kennedy · Last progress April 16, 2026
Changes H‑1B rules by raising the wage floor, tightening rules for third‑party worksites and visa duration, and requiring adjudicators to prioritize higher‑paying petitions. It also creates a fee exemption for certain H‑1B petitions for defined health care occupations when the employer documents a good‑faith, unsuccessful recruitment of U.S. workers. The changes take effect upon enactment and apply only to petitions filed on or after that date.