A hard-line GOP lawmaker has introduced legislation that would eliminate a key pathway to a green card for H-1B visa holders.

Congressman Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, introduced the American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act on June 4, which would overhaul the H-1B visa program by preventing it from serving as a route to a green card and scrapping OPT, a program that allows international students to work temporarily in the United States after graduation.

Roy said the bill is intended to prioritize job opportunities for American workers, particularly in STEM fields.

The H-1B visa program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialized occupations, including medicine, engineering, and technology. Critics argue the program depresses wages and disadvantages American workers, while supporters say it helps fill essential gaps in high-skilled industries.

The bill faces long odds in Congress. Although Republicans control the House with 217 seats to Democrats' 212, along with one independent and five vacancies, the GOP's narrow margin leaves little room for defections. Because the bill is unlikely to attract support from moderate Republicans or Democrats, its prospects for passage remain unlikely. There is bipartisan support in Congress for reforming the VIA program.

The Trump administration has cracked down on the legal migration programs, tightening restrictions, prioritizing higher wages for H-1B applicants, and slapping a $100,000 fee on new petitions.

"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.’ 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," Rep. Roy said in a press release.

Roy's bill is backed by U.S. Tech Workers, the Immigration Accountability Project, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"The bill will effectively address many of the egregious aspects of the H-1B visa program that have not merely encouraged but enabled corporations, universities, and NGOs to displace our most productive workers with cheaper and more quiescent foreigners," Kevin Lynn, President, U.S. Tech Workers, said in a statement.

Arizona Republican Congressman Eli Crane, who is a cosponsor, said in a statement that the bill "delivers significant reforms that protect future generations instead of padding bottom lines at their expense."

"Congress should be doing everything in our power to prioritize our own citizens rather than facilitating their displacement," Rep. Crane said in a press release.

President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, in November 2025 said H-1B visas were needed because you "have to bring in talent." When Ingraham pushed back, saying the U.S. has plenty of domestic talent, Trump replied: "No, you don't."

"You don't have certain talents" and "people have to learn," Trump told the outlet. "You can't take people off an unemployment line and say, 'I'm going to put you into a factory, we're going to make missiles.'" He added: "It doesn't work that way."

Beyond ending a pathway to permanent residency, the bill would impose sweeping changes to how the H-1B visa program operates.

The legislation would require H-1B applicants to demonstrate they maintain a residence abroad and do not intend to abandon it, reversing longstanding policy that has allowed so-called "dual intent," in which visa holders can pursue permanent residency while working in the United States.

It would also repeal provisions that currently allow H-1B holders to extend their status while awaiting green card processing, a change that could significantly limit how long workers can remain in the country.

The bill would shorten the maximum duration of an H-1B visa from six years to two years, while prioritizing applications offering higher salaries rather than allocating visas through the existing lottery system.

Employers would face stricter hiring requirements, including a mandate to prove no qualified U.S. worker is available for a position and to offer wages at or above the 75th percentile for the occupation in the area.

Companies would also be required to advertise positions to U.S. workers, offer jobs to equally or more qualified applicants, and certify that hiring a foreign worker would not negatively affect wages or working conditions.

Additional restrictions would bar employers from laying off U.S. workers in similar roles within a year of hiring an H-1B worker and from having more than 5 percent of their U.S. workforce made up of nonimmigrant employees.

Immigration benefits agency United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said on May 21 that it had seen a drop in "properly submitted" applications for the 2027 allocation of the H-1B. The number fell from 343,981 in fiscal year 2026 to 211,600 in 2027, a 38.5 percent drop.

Although some other Republican lawmakers have also pushed efforts to eliminate the H-1B program through legislation, the Trump administration has given no indication it plans to do so.

The agency has already completed the allocation for the upcoming fiscal year, with the next H-1B registration period expected to open early next year.

However, the administration has aggressively clamped down on suspected fraud and misuse of the program. The Department of Labor has initiated nearly 200 investigations into potential H-1B program abuse and, as of May 4, 2026, listed four employers as disqualified H-1B sponsors. Employers determined to be willful violators may face random audits for up to five years and could be prohibited from receiving approval for future H-1B petitions.

Several Republican-led states have introduced measures to limit the use of H‑1B visa workers in public-sector roles. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on new H‑1B petitions through May 31, 2027, while in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis directed the state’s Board of Governors to phase out H‑1B hiring at public universities.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jake Merrick said he would seek to restrict the use of H-1B and other foreign-worker visa programs in Oklahoma. A bill is currently making its way through the Iowa state legislature that seeks to prevent universities from hiring H-1B visa holders