H-1B Fraud Bill To Raise Employer Fine to $250,000, 10-Yr Sponsorship Bans
WASHINGTON — A Republican congresswoman from Texas introduced legislation that would dramatically increase penalties for serious H-1B visa program violations, including fines of up to $250,000 and a minimum 10-year sponsorship ban for employers found responsible for certain violations involving the displacement of U.S. workers.
Rep. Beth Van Duyne introduced the H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act, H.R. 10643, on Oct. 1, 2026. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and has not become law.
The proposal matters to Indian professionals and employers because the H-1B program is a major route U.S. companies use to hire highly skilled foreign workers, including many from India.
The bill is narrowly focused on enforcement penalties. Its two-page legislative text does not change the annual H-1B visa cap, create new wage requirements or alter the basic eligibility rules for obtaining an H-1B visa. Instead, it would substantially increase existing civil penalties and debarment periods for specified violations.
Van Duyne, a Republican representing Texas' 24th Congressional District, announced the measure publicly on Oct. 5. Five other Texas Republicans — Reps. Brian Babin, Pat Fallon, Brandon Gill, Keith Self and Pete Sessions — are original co-sponsors. Congressional records confirm the bill was introduced Oct. 1 and referred to the Judiciary Committee.
“When a business can lie to the government and push American workers aside for cheaper labor, and the worst it faces is a $5,000 fine, many view that as the cost of doing business,” Van Duyne said in announcing the measure.
She said the legislation was intended to make employers face substantially greater consequences for violations of the program.
Penalties could rise from $5,000 to $100,000
The legislative text would amend Section 212(n)(2)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
For the category of violations currently carrying a civil penalty of up to $5,000, H.R. 10643 would replace that amount with $100,000.
It would also increase the corresponding minimum period during which an employer can be barred from sponsoring H-1B workers from at least two years to at least five years.
For the more serious category addressed in the next provision — which includes certain willful violations involving displacement of U.S. workers — the bill would raise the statutory penalty from $35,000 to $250,000.
The associated minimum sponsorship ban would increase from at least three years to at least 10 years.
Those figures are contained directly in the official bill text published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Immigration document-fraud fines would also jump
The proposal goes beyond H-1B-specific employer penalties by amending federal provisions governing immigration document fraud.
For covered document-fraud violations, the existing statutory range of $250 to $2,000 would be replaced with penalties ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
For subsequent violations following a previous order, the current $2,000-to-$5,000 range would rise to between $20,000 and $50,000.
Those penalties apply per document, according to the statutory provision being amended.
North Texas H-1B investigations cited
Van Duyne has linked the legislation to federal scrutiny of suspected H-1B abuses in North Texas.
Her office said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told her that, as of June 2026, nearly 60% of employer-related H-1B fraud investigations nationwide were concentrated in North Texas.
Mullin has served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security since March 24, 2026.
The nearly 60% figure, however, was disclosed through Van Duyne's office. An independently published DHS dataset substantiating that percentage was not located during review.
There is stronger primary-source confirmation for a separate investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General in Dallas.
Labor Inspector General Anthony P. D'Esposito visited Dallas in August as part of what his office described as a nationwide investigation into H-1B visa fraud.
At one multi-story building containing numerous businesses, investigators conducted checks at locations associated with more than 500 approved H-1B applications, according to an Aug. 13 statement from the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General.
Investigators said many offices were locked and dark and showed little or no evidence of active business operations.
That finding raises questions about the companies associated with the petitions, but the Labor Department statement did not say investigators had established more than 500 separate cases of H-1B fraud.
What the proposal means for Indian H-1B workers
For Indian professionals, including Telugu technology workers in the United States, the most important distinction is that H.R. 10643 currently proposes penalties primarily against employers and other parties responsible for covered violations; it does not itself cancel existing H-1B visas or impose a new penalty on compliant H-1B employees.
If enacted, however, substantially longer sponsorship bans could have practical consequences for foreign professionals employed by companies found to have committed serious violations. An employer barred from participating in the H-1B program could no longer sponsor workers during the applicable debarment period.
The legislation also illustrates the broader increase in federal scrutiny of alleged fraud involving employment-based immigration programs, particularly in North Texas.
For H-1B employees, allegations against an employer should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that every sponsored worker committed immigration fraud. Employer compliance violations and an individual worker's immigration status are separate legal questions.
Bill faces congressional process
The proposed penalties are not currently in effect.
H.R. 10643 remains at the beginning of the legislative process. As of Oct. 7, congressional records show only that the measure was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
For the proposed changes to become federal law, legislation would have to pass both chambers of Congress in identical form and be signed by President Donald Trump, unless Congress were to override a presidential veto.
Until then, the higher $100,000 and $250,000 penalties and five- and 10-year minimum sponsorship bans described in H.R. 10643 remain proposals rather than current H-1B law.
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