On September 29, 2025, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are reintroducing bipartisan legislation to “reform” and “close loopholes” in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs.
According to Senators Grassley and Durbin, the “H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act” targets fraud and abuse of the H-1B and L-1 visas and enhances transparency in the foreign worker recruitment process.
Grassley and Durbin have long partnered to reform the H-1B visa system and first introduced their bipartisan legislation in 2007. Last week, the senators sent letters to 10 major U.S. employers, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, scrutinizing their heavy use of H-1B visas to secure foreign labor.
Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are original cosponsors.
The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act aims to impose stricter terms for companies that use large numbers of H-1B and L-1 visas. It would also provide the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) with new and greater authorities and responsibilities to ensure that program requirements are enforced. Further, USDOL and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) will have a mandate to cooperate and share information and to conduct H-1B and L-1 yearly compliance audits.
According to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act will:
- “Implement new wage, recruitment, and attestation requirements for employers seeking to hire H-1B and L-1 workers;
- Require employers seeking to hire H-1B employees to post those jobs on a searchable DOL website as a resource for both U.S. workers and laid-off H-1B nonimmigrants;
- Authorize USDOL to place a fee on labor condition applications and use those fees to hire an additional 200 USDOL employees;
- Make reforms to the H-1B program, including by prioritizing H-1B visa issuance for workers with higher levels of education in STEM and amending the definition of a “specialty occupation” to require a bachelor’s degree or higher;
- Make reforms to the L-1 nonimmigrant program, including new time limits and evidentiary requirements for petitions from a “new office” and mandating cooperation from the Department of State in verifying foreign affiliates; and,
- Increase penalties for wage violations, including fines or debarment of employers.”
Moreover, the H-1B and L-1 reform act seems to go deeper by seeking to impose stricter requirements on off-site placement of H-1B and L-1 employees.
If the H-1B and L-1 Reform Act is passed, coupled with the recent changes imposing a one-time fee of $100,000 payment for new H-1B petitions, project Firewall, and a possible and very likely weighted lottery to prioritize H-1B registrations based on higher wages, it will have a significant multi-level impact on employers.
Employers hiring new H-1B and L-1 workers will have to budget for substantial additional fees and incorporate it into their hiring costs. Employers should plan not only to offer higher salaries to increase the chances of their candidates being selected in the lottery but also be prepared for increased exposure to investigations of H-1B compliance regarding wages, recruitment, and worker retention. Employers will be required and must be prepared to maintain meticulous records of all hiring, recruitment, and LCA compliance to prepare for potential audits and enhanced scrutiny from government agencies. Even further than that, employers will have to navigate the new restrictions on third-party placements, restricting the placement of L-1 workers at third-party worksites for more than one year, directly impacting staffing and outsourcing firms.
Companies using L-1 visas for third-party client sites will have to review and adjust their business models to comply with this potential one-year limit. For the first time, employers employing foreign nationals in L-1 status will be required to pay the highest of several wage benchmarks after a worker’s first year.
Employers should stay updated on current news and continue to monitor both the pending H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, the presidential proclamation, executive orders, and USDOS, USDOL, and USCIS rule changes, as they could be subject to legal challenges or modifications.
