A Republican congressman has introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives that would bring major changes to the H-1B visa program, including ending its use as a pathway to permanent residency.
Rep. Chip Roy, who represents Texas’s 21st Congressional District, introduced the American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act. The bill also seeks to scrap the Optional Practical Training program (OPT), which allows foreign students to work in the United States for a limited period after completing their studies.
Roy said the H-1B program has been misused for decades by employers who prefer cheaper foreign labor over American STEM workers.
“For its nearly forty-year history, the H-1B visa has been abused, allowing employers to routinely sideline American STEM workers in favor of cheap foreign labor, while masking layoffs and wage suppression as ‘shortages’,” Roy said.
“It’s time to end this lottery-based pipeline and replace it with a system that prioritizes merit, enforces real wage standards, and puts American white-collar workers first,” he added.
The bill has received backing from groups including US Tech Workers, the Immigration Accountability Project and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The proposal comes as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to tighten legal immigration pathways through stricter visa rules, a stronger focus on higher-paid H-1B applicants and a $100,000 fee on new petitions.
Under the proposed changes, H-1B applicants would have to prove that they maintain a residence outside the United States and do not intend to abandon it. This would reverse the long-standing “dual intent” policy, which allows H-1B visa holders to seek permanent residency while working in the country.
The bill would also repeal provisions that currently allow H-1B workers to extend their visa status while waiting for green card processing.
It further seeks to reduce the maximum duration of an H-1B visa from six years to two years. The current lottery-based allocation system would also be replaced with a wage-based process that gives priority to applications offering higher salaries.
Arizona Republican Rep. Eli Crane, who has co-sponsored the bill, said the reforms are aimed at protecting American workers.
“The bill delivers significant reforms that protect future generations instead of padding bottom lines at their expense,” Crane said. “Congress should be doing everything in our power to prioritize our own citizens rather than facilitating their displacement.”