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An American lawmaker will be introducing a bill to “completely eliminate” the H-1B visa programme and take away the pathway to citizenship that it offers, “forcing” individuals to “return home” when their visa expires.
Illustration: Dado Ruvic/Reuters
“My dear fellow Americans, I’m introducing a bill to completely eliminate the H-1B visa programme, which has been riddled with fraud and abuse and has been displacing American workers for decades,” Congresswoman from Gerogia, Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a video posted on X on Thursday.
She said that there will only be one exemption in her bill, which will allow for a 10,000 per year cap on visas issued to medical professionals like doctors and nurses who provide life-saving care to Americans.
Greene however noted that even this 10,000 per year cap will be “phased out” over 10 years to “allow us time to build our own pipeline of American doctors and physicians.”
Greene added that her bill will also “take away the pathway to citizenship, forcing visa holders to return home when their visa expires.”
She further said that the intention of her bill is to restore the “original intent” of the H-1B visa, which was “for it to be temporary.
“These visas were intended to fulfill a specialty occupational need at a given time.
“People should not be allowed to come and live here forever.
“We thank them for their expertise, but we also wish them well so they may return to their home country,” she said.
“Now this will completely end the H-1B visa programme and all other sectors in the job force and in the workforce.
“This is America first.
“It’s time to put American citizens first instead of foreigners first, and this has been an abuse for far too long.
“Americans deserve a future. They deserve a chance.
“And I believe Americans are the most talented people in the world, the most creative, and I want them to have their American dream,” she said.
In order to build the country’s pipeline of American doctors and medical professionals, Greene said that her bill will prohibit Medicare-funded residency programmes from admitting non-citizen medical students into their programmes.
She noted that last year alone, there were over 9000 doctors in the US who graduated from medical school but were left without a residency placement.
Meanwhile, in 2023 alone, there were over 5000 foreign-born doctors who received residency spots, she said.
“This is entirely unfair, and it’s America last. My bill will help mitigate the shortage of doctors and nurses in our country, the shortage that we face while at the same time serve as an off-ramp from our reliance on foreign workers by allowing us time to fill our residency programmes with American doctors,” she said.
There is a congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 regular H-1B visas and another 20,000 for US advanced degree holders that are issued per year.
US businesses use the H-1B programme to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
The Trump administration has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse in the H-1B visa programme which is used by companies, particularly technology companies, to employ foreign workers in the US.
Indian professionals, including technology workers and physicians, are among the largest cohort of H-1B visa holders.
Companies can apply for permanent residency for their H-1B employees, who can apply for US citizenship five years after receiving their Green Cards.
In September this year, President Donald Trump issued a Proclamation titled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ as an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme.
Under the Proclamation, certain H-1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025 must be accompanied by an additional $100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility.
