Washington, June 6 : A Republican Congressman has introduced legislation that would sharply reshape the US H-1B visa programme, a move that could have significant implications for thousands of highly skilled foreign professionals, including many from India who use the visa to work in the United States.

Representative Chip Roy of Texas this week unveiled the American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act of 2026, proposing sweeping changes to the programme used by US employers to hire foreign workers in specialised occupations.

The legislation would replace the current H-1B lottery system with a wage-based selection process, require employers to demonstrate efforts to hire American workers first, and prevent companies that have recently conducted layoffs from hiring H-1B workers.

â??For its nearly forty-year history, the H-1B visa has been abused, allowing employers to routinely sideline American STEM workers in favour of cheap foreign labour, while masking layoffs and wage suppression as â??shortages.â?? Itâ??s time to end this lottery-based pipeline and replace it with a system that prioritises merit, enforces real wage standards, and puts American white-collar workers first,â?? Roy said.

The bill would also end the use of H-1B visas as a pathway to permanent residency and eliminate the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, which allows many foreign students graduating from US universities to remain and work in the country after completing their studies.

According to the legislation, employers seeking H-1B workers would have to certify that qualified American workers are not available for the position. Companies would also be required to advertise jobs domestically and offer positions to equally or better qualified US workers before hiring foreign professionals.

The proposal would retain the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas but would prioritise petitions linked to higher salaries instead of distributing visas through a lottery system. The bill would also reduce the duration of H-1B status from six years to two calendar years and limit admissions from any single country to seven per cent of the annual allocation.

The measure builds on legislation introduced by Representative Eli Crane of Arizona, who has proposed a three-year pause on H-1B visa issuances followed by broader reforms.

â??An H-1B program overrun with abuse betrays the interests of hardworking Americans by allowing businesses to replace qualified employees with cheaper foreign labour. Congress should be doing everything in our power to prioritise our own citizens rather than facilitating their displacement,â?? Crane said.

Several immigration-restriction groups endorsed the proposal. Kevin Lynn, President of US Tech Workers, said the bill would address â??many of the egregious aspects of the H-1B visa programâ??. Grant Newman of the Immigration Accountability Project said it would convert the programme â??from a cheap labour pipeline into a functioning guestworker program for the truly skilledâ??.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform also backed the legislation, saying it would â??tighten H-1B requirements, prioritise higher-paying positions, and empower American workers to hold corporations accountableâ??.

The H-1B programme is widely used by technology companies, consulting firms, healthcare providers and research institutions to recruit specialised talent from overseas.

/IANS