US senate bill seeks to further tighten H-1B access. What it means for Indians
The bill proposes further restrictions on H-1B and L-1 visas, and stands to impact Indians. The move comes days after Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee hike.
Days after the Trump administration's big H-1B fee hike to $100,000, a bipartisan support to further changes to the visa allocation system was seen in the US senate with the introduction of the H-1B, L-1 visa reforms bill.
The bill proposes further restrictions on both visas, and comes days after the steep H-1B fee hike and overhaul proposed for the existing lottery system. The move is likely to affect Indians the most, who account for 71% of H-1B visa beneficiaries.
The proposed legislation introduces stricter wage and recruitment rules for employers, giving priority to H-1B visas for workers with STEM degrees and imposing stiffer penalties for wage violations.
However, unlike the H-1B system, the L-1 visa enables multinational companies to transfer their existing employees from overseas offices to the US, Reuters reported.
As Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin introduced the bill, they shed light on American workers being laid off, adding that the legislation aimed to “target visa fraud and abuse” and fix a "broken" immigration system.
“Major companies are laying off thousands of American workers while filing thousands of visa petitions for foreign workers at depressed wages and poor working conditions," Durbin said. The proposed bill is the latest development amid Trump administration's plan to bring in stricter immigration norms.
It could further strain US companies financially, making it less viable for them to hire foreign workers, given the already announced H-1B fee hike on new applications. Besides, the Trump administration recently proposed an overhaul of the H-1B lottery system in a way that would favour higher-skilled and higher-paid foreign workers.
“These changes would increase compliance requirements and likely make H-1B hiring more expensive, particularly for companies that have relied on lower wage levels or contract-based staffing. For L-1 visas, which are used for transferring employees within multinational companies, the bill closes existing gaps by limiting outplacement, raising oversight standards, and adding wage and displacement safeguards,” said Nicole Gunara, Principal Immigration Attorney at Manifest Law.
Conservative think tank Heritage Foundation earlier said that most H-1B positions are held by young entry-level workers from India and China, which means the lottery overhaul favouring high-wage workers could hurt their applications greatly.
Thousands of Indian professionals in America on work visas stand to impact from the policy decisions, according to immigration lawyers.
However, lawmaker Gunara also said that it could be too early to predict the impact of the bill. “What is important to remember is that just 5% of more than 300 immigration bills proposed between 2015 to 2024 became law, so this is a very early stage," the official told HT.
Big changes are being introduced to the work visa systems in the US to make companies hire more American talent. US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick also indicated that there are going to a several changes in the H1-B visa process by February 2026.
