Sponsors (2)
The bill gives states powerful new tools to recruit foreign workers and investors and offers quicker work authorization and family relief, but it trades stronger state control and faster implementation for reduced federal oversight, curtailed appeal rights, possible exclusion from benefits, added employer and federal administrative costs, and risks of uneven standards.
State governments and local employers can sponsor foreign entrepreneurs and workers to enter temporarily to start or run businesses or fill local jobs, increasing local investment, business formation, and workforce supply.
Sponsored nonimmigrants are eligible for employment authorization and occupational licensing, enabling quicker workforce participation and reducing delays between arrival and productive employment.
Spouses and minor children of sponsored individuals can accompany them under derivative status, reducing family separation and making state sponsorship more feasible for families.
Immigrants and the public will have reduced federal and judicial review because the bill gives states near‑exclusive control over admission decisions, limiting central oversight and remedies.
Sponsored nonimmigrants must waive appeal rights against removal (except for asylum), exposing individuals to expedited removal with limited recourse and raising serious due‑process concerns.
States may bar sponsored nonimmigrants from federal means‑tested benefits, leaving low‑income participants without safety‑net access and increasing financial vulnerability.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new State‑sponsored nonimmigrant (W) visa allowing states to sponsor temporary residents (plus spouses and minor children) for state‑defined economic development activities, with federal approval and regulation.
Official title: Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for a State-sponsored nonimmigrant pilot program, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 30, 2026 by John R. Curtis · Last progress July 30, 2026
Creates a new nonimmigrant (W) visa category that allows U.S. states (or compacts of states) to sponsor foreign nationals and their immediate families to live temporarily in that state to perform services, invest capital, direct enterprises, or otherwise contribute to the state's economic development. The bill sets a federal application and approval framework, defines terms and minimum procedural requirements, requires state-level legislative approval for programs, and directs DHS, Labor, and DOJ to issue implementing regulations within 180 days. The new program requires states to conduct periodic labor and wage assessments, establish complaint and investigation mechanisms to guard against U.S. worker displacement, provide DHS notification procedures for noncompliance, and permit employment portability as the state decides. The statute becomes effective at the start of the first fiscal year after enactment.