Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene moved to end the H-1B visa program in the United States 🇺🇸 with a bill introduced in November 2025, setting off a fresh fight in Washington over the future of skilled immigration. The proposal would completely abolish the H-1B visa program, which lets U.S. employers hire skilled foreign workers, while carving out a temporary, shrinking exception for medical professionals. It would also cut off any route from H-1B status to a green card or U.S. citizenship, forcing H-1B holders to leave when their visas expire. Tech firms, hospitals, and immigrants on work visas would be among those most affected.
Key features of Greene’s proposal
- Complete elimination of the H-1B visa category for most professions.
- A narrow medical exemption limited to 10,000 visas per year for doctors and nurses, phased out over a decade.
- No pathway from H-1B status to permanent residency or citizenship for current or future holders.
- Prohibition on Medicare-funded residency programs admitting non-citizen medical students, intended to reserve those slots for U.S. citizens.
Greene’s office frames the bill as prioritizing American workers, saying foreign labor has displaced citizens in sectors including tech, healthcare, engineering, and manufacturing. The proposed phase-out for medical visas is meant, the office says, to give U.S. training programs time to build a stronger domestic pipeline for clinicians while closing what they view as foreign hiring that undercuts wages and job opportunities.
Practical implications and immediate effects
What makes this proposal notable is its sweep. Beyond the medical cap, the bill would:
- End H-1B as a legal category.
- Remove any pathway to permanent residency or citizenship for those already here or coming in under the exemption.
- Require H-1B holders to depart when their status ends—even when employers want to retain them.
According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the plan would reshape long-standing employer hiring patterns and unsettle families whose long-term plans depend on employment-based immigration.
Contrast with bipartisan reform efforts
The proposal arrives amid alternative congressional efforts that aim to reform rather than abolish H-1B. In September 2025, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the bipartisan H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2025, which would:
- Raise wage standards for H-1B workers.
- Cap the share of H-1B employees at no more than 50% of an employer’s workforce.
- Require additional recruitment steps before hiring a foreign worker.
- Boost government oversight and penalties for abuse, expanding enforcement authority for the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security.
Supporters say those steps would keep H-1B focused on genuine skill shortages while discouraging outsourcing-style models critics associate with layoffs.
Political context
- Former President Trump has recently defended the H-1B program after previously criticizing it, calling it a way to bring in highly skilled people.
- Greene’s bill departs from that more moderate stance by seeking total abolition.
- For employers reliant on hard-to-find expertise—from AI firms to rural hospitals—the difference between reform and elimination is substantial: the line between difficult hiring and no hiring.
Effects on healthcare and medical staffing
The medical carve-out draws close attention from health systems and state leaders tracking staffing levels.
- The 10,000 visas per year cap for doctors and nurses would shrink each year until it disappears, based on the theory that U.S. schools and residency programs will eventually meet demand.
- Hospital leaders, especially in rural and underserved areas, warn that losing international clinicians could mean longer wait times and fewer services.
- Banning Medicare-funded residency programs from admitting non-citizen medical students is intended to reserve slots for Americans but may strain programs that rely on international medical graduates to operate.
Financial and regulatory background
Separate from Congress, the cost of hiring H-1B workers from abroad has already increased. As of September 21, 2025, a $100,000 supplemental fee per H-1B petition for workers outside the country took effect under a Presidential Proclamation.
- The fee is designed to restrict filings to roles considered highly skilled and hard to replace.
- Immigration attorneys say the charge has chilled some overseas recruiting and pushed companies to reassess whether positions truly require H-1B hires.
- Greene’s bill would render that debate moot by eliminating the category entirely.
Stakeholder positions
- Business groups and many universities argue H-1B workers drive growth and innovation, particularly in STEM fields and healthcare. They warn that abolishing the category could send jobs and research abroad if companies relocate projects where hiring skilled staff is easier.
- Worker advocates concerned about abuse support reforms—higher wages, tougher oversight—but often stop short of endorsing full elimination.
- That split helps explain why the Grassley-Durbin plan targets wage floors, audits, and limits on heavy H-1B reliance rather than termination.
Impact on families and long-term planning
For families based on H-1B status, the removal of a path to permanent residency is especially consequential.
- Many H-1B employees wait years in green card backlogs, frequently with children nearing age-related status changes.
- Ending the green card route would put families on a fixed clock, forcing many to relocate well before any end date to secure stability for schooling and careers.
- Immigration policy researchers say such a cutoff would drive earlier relocation decisions and significant life changes.
Political and legislative outlook
- Greene and supporters argue the bill would stop what they call a “mass replacement” of U.S. workers, raise wages, and push firms to invest in domestic training pipelines and apprenticeships.
- Employers counter that many advanced roles—such as chip design or specialist nursing—cannot be filled quickly through domestic training, and that sudden removal of H-1B would leave projects unstaffed.
- The bill’s path is uncertain: bipartisan reform gives Congress an alternative that targets abuse without ending the program, while the high $100,000 supplemental fee already exerts pressure on filings.
If Greene’s measure advances, expect intense hearings featuring tech firms, hospital executives, and workers—both American and foreign—who will describe the practical consequences for paychecks, patient care, and community budgets.
The federal government’s H-1B guidance remains in place unless Congress acts. Employers and workers can still review program basics on the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B page: https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations.
VisaVerge.com reports that the sharp contrast between abolition and reform puts pressure on both parties to choose a clear direction for the H-1B visa program—and to explain to voters and employers how that choice will affect jobs, hospital care, and America’s competitiveness in the global talent race.
This Article in a Nutshell
In November 2025 Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed completely eliminating the H-1B visa program while creating a temporary, shrinking carve-out for medical professionals limited to 10,000 visas annually, phased out over ten years. The bill would remove any route from H-1B status to permanent residency or citizenship and bar non-citizen medical students from Medicare-funded residency slots. Tech firms, hospitals, and immigrant families would face major disruptions. A bipartisan Senate alternative focuses on wage increases, caps and enforcement rather than abolition. The proposal has heightened debate over the balance between protecting U.S. workers and meeting skill shortages.
