A bill introduced in the US House of Representatives on 1 October 2026 would sharply raise the cost of breaking H-1B visa rules, with the toughest penalties reserved for employers found to have wilfully displaced American workers in favour of cheaper foreign labour.
The H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act (H.R. 10643) was introduced by Republican Representative Beth Van Duyne of Texas, along with five co-sponsors : Brian Babin, Pat Fallon, Brandon Gill, Keith Self, and Pete Sessions all from Texas. According to the official press release on Van Duyne's congressional website, the bill would raise the maximum civil penalty for violations involving worker displacement from $35,000 to $250,000, and extend the minimum sponsorship ban in that category from three years to ten. A separate category covering other wilful violations such as misrepresenting the role performed or underpaying a worker would see its maximum fine rise from $5,000 to $100,000, with the minimum ban doubling from two years to five.
The bill would also increase penalties for immigration document fraud. Fines currently ranging from $250 to $2,000 per document would rise to between $1,000 and $10,000 under the proposal.
Van Duyne said in a statement to Newsweek that existing penalties as low as $5,000 were too small to deter abuse, describing the current regime as "the cost of doing business" for unscrupulous employers.
Analysts at Immigration Analytics, cited by Business Standard, flag that the bill does not alter H-1B visa numbers, eligibility criteria, or filing fees. The penalties target employers, not individual visa holders. However, the same analysis notes that staffing and consulting companies that rely heavily on H-1B sponsorship could be disproportionately exposed, since a five- or ten-year debarment could effectively end that part of their operations.
The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee and is not yet law. Its introduction comes as Vice President JD Vance has separately called for Congress to reform — or end — the H-1B programme entirely, placing two contrasting approaches before policymakers at once.
Source: Newsweek
