H.R. 9157: American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act of 2026

American White-Collar Worker Jobs Act of 2026

This bill overhauls the H-1B visa system and reasserts Congressional control over immigration. It-

• Eliminates the legal loophole used to justify discretionary EADs, effectively terminating the executive branch's ability to arbitrarily hand out work authorization to illegal aliens, parolees, or temporary visa dependents;
• Mandates that foreign workers be paid either the higher of actual wage of similarly qualified Americans or the 75th percentile wage for that occupation and replaces the random visa lottery with a system prioritizing the highest-paying petitions; 
• Caps corporate dependency on foreign labor by prohibiting any U.S. company from having a workforce comprised of more than 5% nonimmigrant workers;
• Halts all H-1B visa approvals for any occupational classification where the U.S. unemployment rate exceeds 2%;
• Grants anyone displaced by a nonimmigrant the right to sue the offending employer in federal court, and it bans companies from hiring H-1B workers if they have laid off U.S. workers in the same classification within the past year; and
• Reduces the maximum duration of an H-1B visa from six years down to two years and eliminates "dual intent," requiring visa holders to maintain a foreign residence they have no intention of abandoning.