A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced legislation that would allow individual states to sponsor temporary foreign workers to address local labor shortages, a proposal that could eventually create new opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled workers, if it becomes law.
The State-Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act of 2026, introduced by Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah and Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, seeks to establish a new temporary visa category under which participating states could recruit foreign workers based on their own economic needs, while the federal government would continue to handle security screening, visa approvals and immigration enforcement, according to a report by Newsweek.
How the proposed visa program would work
Under the bill, states choosing to participate would first need approval from their legislatures before requesting visa allocations from the federal government.
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