US Senate bill proposes letting states sponsor temporary visas for foreign workers

A bipartisan pair of US senators, Republican John Curtis of Utah and Democrat Mark Kelly of Arizona, has introduced the State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2026, which would let individual states sponsor temporary foreign workers for local labour shortages, Hindustan Times reported, citing Newsweek. Participating states would need legislative approval before requesting visa allocations, would identify their own shortage sectors, and could let workers change employers within that state under its own rules, while the federal government would keep control of security screening, visa approvals and enforcement. Workers would generally be tied to the sponsoring state, though interstate agreements could eventually allow movement between participating states, visas would last up to three years and be renewable, with states required to monitor wages and shortages so foreign workers do not replace American employees. Unlike the H-1B programme, which requires employer sponsorship for specialty occupations, the proposed visa would let states recruit across a wider range of industries, and the bill does not earmark visas for any nationality.