House bill would lift H-1B penalties to $250,000 and a 10-year ban

House bill would lift H-1B penalties to $250,000 and a 10-year ban

5 October 2026: Representative Beth Van Duyne of Texas has put forward the H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act, H.R. 10643, which would multiply the civil penalties for willful violations of the H-1B programme and lengthen the minimum time an employer can be barred from sponsoring workers. Her office announced the bill on 5 October.

Not yet independently verified. The bill text on govinfo.gov was not read in full; figures come from the sponsor's announcement and are consistent with ETHRWorld. Reports differ on the introduction date (1 or 5 October). We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

The penalty changes, as her office describes them:

• for covered willful violations, such as lying about the job being performed or underpaying a worker, the maximum civil penalty rises from $5,000 to $100,000
• for willful violations that involve displacing U.S. workers, the maximum rises from $35,000 to $250,000
• the minimum sponsorship ban rises from two to five years for a serious willful violation, and from three to ten years where displacement is also involved

The bill also reaches immigration document fraud, including in H-1B cases. Civil penalties would run from a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $10,000 per document, and for violations after a prior order from a minimum of $20,000 to a maximum of $50,000 per document.

In the announcement, Van Duyne says that when a business can lie to the government and push American workers aside for cheaper labor, a $5,000 fine is treated by many as the cost of doing business. Her office links the bill to an enforcement push in North Texas. It says the Labor Department's Inspector General found nearly 500 instances of likely H-1B visa fraud in one building during an August visit, and that as of June 2026 nearly 60% of H-1B fraud investigations of employers nationwide were concentrated in the region, a figure it attributes to the Homeland Security Secretary.

Representatives Brian Babin, Pat Fallon, Brandon Gill, Keith Self and Pete Sessions are listed as co-sponsors. ETHRWorld reports that the bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, and notes that it must clear both chambers and be signed before it changes anything. Until then the existing penalties remain in force.

The bill's penalty ranges are tied to willfulness, so employers' attention will fall on how wage and job-description attestations on H-1B filings are kept and checked.

Related on TrustList:

• Austria lets single-permit holders change employer after 45 days
• DHS proposes a $70,000 school fee for each student's first OPT

Sources

• Rep. Beth Van Duyne: Van Duyne Introduces H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act, 5 October 2026
• ETHRWorld: H-1B visa violators face up to $250,000 fine under new US bill, 7 October 2026