Senators unveil bipartisan H-1B, L-1 visa reforms bill: US educated STEM individuals to get priority in selection

Senators Chuck Grassley (Republican) and Dick Durbin (Democrat) who last week had sent letters to ten major American companies including Amazon, Google, and Meta, ‘scrutinizing their heavy use of H-1B visas while simultaneously laying off American workers’ have announced a bipartisan legislation to overhaul the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. The proposed ‘H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act’ has drawn support from a cross-party group of lawmakers, including Bernie Sanders. The bill would replace the H-1B lottery with a merit-based priority system that favours US-educated advanced degree holders, especially from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field and also high-wage applicants. It also proposes tighter wage and recruitment rules for American employers, mandatory pos