H-1B, L-1 Visa Reform Act reintroduced in US Senate: How will new bill impact hiring by big Tech firms

Amid the ongoing changes in the H-1B visa landscape, senior lawmakers of the US Senate are once again teaming up against the high-skilled visas.

Calling for an overhaul in the H-1B and L-1 visas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dick Durbin have taken a jibe at the US tech companies using these visas as an alternative to outsourcing, when they were meant to be a tool for attracting high-skilled talent and innovation. They have now reintroduced the Visa Reform Act in the US Senate.

This recent initiative comes only a few weeks after President Donald Trump signed a broad executive order affecting H-1B visa applications. The new directive requires firms to pay a one-time fee of $100,000 (roughly ₹88 lakh) for each new H-1B visa petition.

Earlier, senators sent inquiries to ten major employers, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, questioning why they were filing thousands of visa petitions even as they laid off American workers.

“Congress created the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as limited channels for firms to access top talent when it isn’t available domestically,” Grassley said in a statement.

“Yet, over time, many employers have used them to sideline American workers in favor of cheaper foreign labor. Congress must step in again to restore integrity to these programs and uphold dignity for both American and foreign workers,” he added.

Durbin echoed the concern, highlighting widespread tech layoffs. “Large companies are cutting thousands of American jobs while filing thousands of visa petitions for foreign workers at suppressed wages and under poor conditions,” he said. “Congress must intervene to protect American workers and fix our broken immigration system.”

The bill has support from original co-sponsors, including Senators Tommy Tuberville, Richard Blumenthal, and Bernie Sanders.

What the bill would do

• Impose new wage and recruitment standards on employers.

• Mandate that job openings be posted on a searchable Labor Department site for US workers and for laid-off H-1B holders.
• Authorise the department to collect fees to hire about 200 additional enforcement staff.
• Prioritise visa allocation for highly educated STEM workers.
• Narrow the definition of “specialty occupation” to require at least a bachelor’s degree.
• Implement tighter limits on L-1 petitions for establishing “new offices.”
• Require cooperation from the State Department to verify foreign affiliates.

Penalties for violations could include fines or debarment from participating in the program.

The H-1B and L-1 programs were originally designed to help US companies recruit skilled foreign talent when qualified American workers were unavailable. Critics, however, argue that many firms have repurposed them as cost-cutting tools, displacing domestic workers and underpaying foreign staff who are bound to a single employer and vulnerable to abuse.

With the green-card backlog growing, advocates say foreign workers often have little choice but to survive poor conditions while awaiting permanent residency.