H.R. 6305 — High-skilled Immigration Reform for Employment Act

This section doubles the annual numerical cap on H-1B nonimmigrant visas to 130,000 (from 65,000) and eliminates the 20,000 limit on exemptions for aliens with a master's or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education. (The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.) It also raises the thresholds for classifying an employer as H-1B-dependent—i.e., subject to additional hiring requirements such as U.S. worker recruitment—by (1) increasing from 25 to 50 the maximum number of full-time equivalent employees for the lowest threshold and from 7 to 12 the maximum number of H-1B nonimmigrants; (2) changing the middle threshold to at least 51 but not more than 100 full-time equivalent employees (from at least 26 but not more than 50) and from 12 to 24 the maximum number of H-1B nonimmigrants; and (3) increasing from 51 to 101 the minimum number of full-time equivalent employees for the highest threshold.

This section establishes the Promoting American Ingenuity Grant Program, authorizing the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to states (1) to strengthen elementary school and secondary school education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology; (2) to retain teachers in those fields at elementary and secondary school levels; and (3) to assist institutions of higher education in educating students enrolled in programs leading to degrees in those fields. Grants require applications from state chief executives at times and containing information specified by the Secretary, with $25 million authorized for each of FY2026 through 2030. The section incorporates definitions of elementary school, secondary school, and state from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and of institution of higher education from the Higher Education Act of 1965.