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119-hr-10400119th Congress

SMARTER Act

Sponsored By: Representative Schweikert, David [R-AZ-1]

Introduced

Summary

This bill would overhaul U.S. legal immigration to prioritize skilled, points-based admissions. It would eliminate the Diversity Visa, narrow family-sponsored categories and ages, establish a Commerce-led SMART Board to set employment limits and data rules, replace the H-1B framework with a new SMARTER nonimmigrant path, and create a paid Gold-Card investor visa program.

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  • Families: Immediate-relative rules would narrow to spouses and younger children. An unmarried child counts as under 21 if a petition existed at enactment and under 18 otherwise, and parents would no longer be immediate relatives.
  • Skilled workers and employers: A new points system would score applicants on age, education, English, and pay. A SMART Board at Commerce would set employment-based numerical limits and may request non‑personally-identifiable industry and wage data, which must be provided within 60 days.
  • Gold-Card investors: Creates a Gold-Card program for 2026–2035 with 25,000 immigrant visas per year and a paid option starting at $1 million for single applicants.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

5 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 2 costs, 3 mixed.

New paid Gold-Card immigrant visas

This bill would create a Gold‑Card program with 25,000 immigrant visas per year for each fiscal year 2026 through 2035. You could get a visa by paying $1,000,000 plus a $15,000 processing fee, or a corporation could pay $2,000,000 plus a $15,000 processing fee on your behalf. DHS would run admissibility background checks and grant employment authorization on admission. The Commerce Secretary would be able to adjust the fee every two years. Gold‑Card visas would not count against worldwide numerical visa limits.

New rules for work visas and wages

If enacted, USCIS would pick many employment immigrants using a numeric points system based on age, education, English, pay versus the State median, and other factors. Some education tiers would require an institution to have had at least $100,000 in federally financed R&D each of the prior four years and other institutional tests. The Commerce SMART Board would set aggregate and industry limits, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics would set counts for SMARTER nonimmigrant workers. Employers would need to pay median (commensurate) wages, make displacement attestations, and show health insurance or a bond. Applicants would file electronically, attest they can document claimed points, and pay a $160 application fee. Holders of employment-based immigrant visas and every member of their household would not be eligible for federal means‑tested benefits like Medicaid or SNAP.

Tighter family immigration and citizenship

This bill would narrow family‑sponsored immigration so it mainly covers spouses and children of lawful permanent residents and would make many other family petitions filed after introduction invalid. For people with a petition pending at enactment, "child" would mean under age 21; for people without a pending petition at enactment, "child" would mean under age 18. The Diversity Visa lottery would be eliminated on the first day of the first fiscal year beginning on or after enactment. A person could not be naturalized if their affidavit‑of‑support sponsor has not repaid the federal government for means‑tested benefits the person received.

AI to find visa overstays

This bill would direct DHS to build and use artificial intelligence to analyze immigration and travel records and other data to identify nonimmigrant visa holders who stayed past their allowed time. The process would apply to DHS immigration and travel records and other relevant data sources. If enacted, this could increase detection and enforcement of overstays.

New limits for religious immigrant visas

The bill would cap certain religious special immigrant visas at 2,500 per year. Religious sponsors would have to certify the salary will be high enough that the immigrant would not qualify for means‑tested Federal benefits. Spouses and children could not accompany or follow to join these special immigrants. After the second fiscal year, visas for a given denomination could not grow by more than 5 percent over the prior year.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Schweikert, David [R-AZ-1]

AZ • R

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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