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Perplexity ChatGPT Claude Gemini

New Green Card Bill Targets Employment Visas, Family Immigration And Lottery: What Indian Applicants Should Know

Perplexity ChatGPT Claude Gemini
New Green Card Bill Targets Employment Visas, Family Immigration And Lottery: What Indian Applicants Should Know

A newly introduced Senate bill could rewrite the rules of America’s legal immigration system from the ground up. It could reshape how employment-based green cards are awarded, and as well as narrow family sponsorship. The bill also permanently proposes to scrap the Diversity Visa lottery altogether. The bill is titled as Americans First Immigration Act and was introduced by Republican senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. As always, our EB-1A consultants have plunged into the depth of this bill and outlined what consequences this bill could pose in the U.S immigration landscape.

A glance into the bill and its sponsor

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama introduced the Americans First Immigration Act on September 23, 2026. The bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the National Immigration Forum, and had no Senate co-sponsors as of September 25. This detail matters: a bill without co-sponsors and still parked in committee is, for now, only a proposal. The legislation is not current US immigration law, and any changes it envisions would require further action by Congress before taking effect.

Tuberville framed the bill as a fundamental revamp of who gets to immigrate to the United States and why. “Our current immigration system does little to evaluate the type of people we let in — it’s a free-for-all,” he said, adding that “coming to the United States is a privilege, and we need to ensure that anyone immigrating to our country is willing to go by our laws and contribute to our society.”

A points-based system replaces employment green cards

The most far-reaching change in the bill is its overhaul of employment-based immigration. The legislation would replace the existing employment-based framework with a points-based system, according to the official announcement from Tuberville’s Senate office. In other words, the system proposed in the bill will award points for factors including education, English proficiency, high-paying job offers, military service and extraordinary achievement.

The mechanics, as laid out in the bill’s text, are specific and strict. The legislation would establish an annual worldwide allocation of 192,000 points-based immigrant visas. Interestingly, this number would be reduced by the count of certain migrants who were not detained or were released from mandatory detention during the previous fiscal year. Applicants would need a genuine US job offer and at least 16 points to participate in U.S. immigration. The ideal participant would also have to be between 18 and 51 years old while scoring in the fifth decile or higher on an English-language proficiency test.

Wage thresholds would rise sharply for many applicants. Applicants without a qualifying US degree would generally need a job offer worth at least 200 per cent of the median wage in the state where they would work, while those holding a qualifying US degree would need an offer worth at least 150 per cent of the state median wage.

Employers, too, would face new obligations. The Senate announcement states that employers would be required to recruit US workers first and ensure that foreign labor does not displace American workers. They would also be barred from laying off workers in equivalent jobs beginning 90 days before filing the required attestation.

Even for those who make it through, the reward would come with strings attached. Green cards issued through the points system would initially be conditional for two years. Moreover, the status of the principal applicant, spouse and children could be terminated if the principal applicant:

  • received a means-tested public benefit,
  • was convicted of specified offences, or
  • failed to remain in qualifying employment.

The backlog problem: What would happen to pending petitions

The bill’s transition provisions may be the most consequential part of the entire proposal for Indian applicants already in the system. According to the bill’s full text, many pending employment-based petitions would simply be wiped out once the new system takes effect: applications for adjustment of status or immigrant visas based on those petitions would be “rejected, denied, or invalidated.”

There is a narrow carve-out for those who already cleared the approval stage, but it comes with a hard ceiling. Beneficiaries whose petitions were approved before the effective date could continue receiving visas only until the annual allocation for their existing category in the fiscal year of enactment is exhausted, after which no further visas would be issued under that category. Wire service IANS noted plainly why this detail carries outsized weight for one nationality in particular. In other words, the provision could be particularly consequential for Indian applicants who have approved employment-based petitions but remain in lengthy green card queues.

That queue is not a small one. Congressional testimony from recent years has documented just how lopsided the employment-based backlog has become. Each year, the United States conducts a lottery to admit roughly 85,000 new H-1B visa workers on so-called dual-intent work visas that allow entry for high-skilled jobs with the eventual goal of permanent residency. Roughly 70 percent of those new visas, nearly 60,000, go to workers from India.

Family sponsorship and the diversity visa lottery

The bill’s reach extends well beyond employment visas. Under the proposal, family-sponsored immigration would be limited to spouses and minor children, according to Tuberville’s office. It would end several existing pathways for other family relationships. The bill would end green card pathways for parents, siblings and adult children of US citizens, i.e. categories that many Indian-American families currently rely on to reunite with relatives.

The Diversity Visa Lottery, which awards a limited number of green cards annually to applicants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the US, would disappear entirely. The legislation would eliminate the Lottery and replace it with a points-based model.

A further provision targets international students. The bill would require immigrants who are not permanent residents to pay at least the tuition and fees charged to out-of-state students at US colleges and universities. The institutions that violate the requirement risk loss of approval to enrol international students for five years.

Where the Bill stands and who is backing it

Despite its propulsion, the bill has not attracted bipartisan or even broad Republican support so far. It does have backing from several immigration-restriction advocacy groups. Organizations including NumbersUSA, America First Policy Institute, Center for Renewing America and America First Works endorsed the bill, according to the senator’s announcement, though those organizations’ views on the legislation are their own.

The bill’s introduction does not mean that current Green Card, family immigration or Diversity Visa rules have changed, and any proposed changes would require further congressional action before becoming law.

At GCEB1, our EB-1A experts are staying eagle eyed on all the developments in the U.S. immigration landscape. We regularly write, dissect and publish insights about several policy changes and immigration law in the making. Stay tuned to us to make your immigration journey information guided and stress free.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Americans First Immigration Act?

It is a bill introduced by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama on September 23, 2026, that would overhaul US legal immigration, replacing employment-based green card categories with a points-based system, narrowing family sponsorship, and eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery.

2. Is this bill currently US law?

No. It is a proposal that has been read twice and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It would need to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law before any of its provisions took effect.

3. How would the points-based system work?

Applicants would need a genuine US job offer, at least 16 points, and to be between 18 and 51 years old, scoring in the fifth decile or higher on an English-proficiency test. Points would be awarded for salary, education, English proficiency, military service, and extraordinary achievement, with an annual worldwide cap of 192,000 points-based visas.

4. What happens to employment-based green card petitions already filed or pending?

The bill would invalidate many pending petitions once the new system takes effect, meaning related adjustment-of-status or immigrant visa applications could be rejected, denied, or invalidated.

5. What about petitions that are already approved?

Beneficiaries with approved petitions could keep receiving visas, but only until their category’s annual allocation for the fiscal year of enactment runs out; after which no more visas would issue under that category.

6. Why does this matter especially for Indian applicants?

Indian nationals make up the largest share of the employment-based green card backlog by a wide margin, due to per-country caps combined with high H-1B visa volumes, so any disruption to pending-petition rules would disproportionately affect them.

7. What would change for family-sponsored immigration?

The bill would limit family-sponsored green cards to spouses and minor children only, eliminating pathways currently available to parents, siblings, and adult children of US citizens.

8. Would the Diversity Visa Lottery be eliminated?

Yes. The bill would scrap the lottery entirely and replace it with a points-based model weighing education, English proficiency, and job offers, while keeping a capped allocation for religious workers.

9. Who supports the bill, and does it have bipartisan backing?

The bill has no Senate co-sponsors as of its introduction. It has been endorsed by immigration-restriction advocacy groups including NumbersUSA, America First Policy Institute, Center for Renewing America, and America First Works.

Sources & Further Reading

 

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