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DHS proposes taking away the 60 days a laid-off H-1B worker has to find a new job. Comments close November 10.

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The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule on September 11 that would remove the discretionary grace period of up to 60 days that workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN status currently get after their employment ends. Without it, the proposal would require a worker to depart the United States immediately upon failing to maintain the employment. DHS's own analysis says some workers may lose income and some may be issued Notices to Appear, and it offers a qualitative assessment rather than a count of the people affected. Nothing has changed yet: this is a proposal, the current rule still applies, and written comments are open until November 10, 2026.

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If you are in the United States on an H-1B and your employer lets you go, the current rule gives you a window — up to 60 days, at the government's discretion — to find another sponsoring employer, change status, or arrange to leave. On September 11 the Department of Homeland Security proposed removing it.

What the proposal does

The notice is titled Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period, docket USCIS-2026-0364. In its own words:

  • "DHS proposes to remove regulations at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2)" — the provision that created the grace period.
  • It covers workers in "E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, or TN nonimmigrant classification."
  • The result would be "requiring an alien to depart from the United States immediately upon his or her failure to maintain the employment or activity."

DHS's stated reasoning looks back to how the grace period arrived. "Before 2017, there was no grace period for nonimmigrant workers," the notice says; it came in a rule published at 81 FR 82398 on November 18, 2016. DHS now says that rulemaking "did not sufficiently consider the negative impacts of the grace period provision."

What DHS itself says it would cost

The useful part of any proposed rule is the section where the agency has to write down who loses. This one says:

  • "a subset of these aliens may incur lost income if they require additional days to conduct their job search"
  • "some aliens may be issued Notices to Appear (NTA)" — the charging document that starts removal proceedings.

The notice does not put a number on either. Its analysis is a qualitative assessment, so there is no official count of how many people a layoff would put in this position in a given year.

The date that matters

Written comments must be submitted on or before November 10, 2026. The notice adds that the electronic docket "will accept comments before midnight eastern time at the end of that day."

A public comment is not a vote, but it is the one formal channel into this rule. The agency is required to consider and respond to significant comments before it can finalise, and a specific account — what 60 days made possible for you or someone you employ, and what zero would have meant — is exactly the kind of evidence a qualitative assessment lacks.

What is not established

  • Nothing has changed. The grace period in 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) remains in effect. A proposal is not a rule.
  • There is no effective date, and no final rule exists. DHS may finalise this as written, change it, or withdraw it.
  • This record is not legal advice. The grace period has always been discretionary and applies differently across situations; anyone relying on it should read the notice itself or talk to an immigration attorney.
  • Scope beyond the listed classifications — dependents, students, pending petitions — is not something this record interprets; the notice is the authority on that.

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