Trump Administration Seeks to End 60-Day Grace Period for H-1B Visa Holders

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed ending the 60-day grace period that currently lets H-1B visa holders and other skilled foreign workers stay in the United States after losing their jobs. The change would make those workers immediately removable once their employment ends, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. Public comments on the plan are open for 60 days.

The proposal would apply to several employment-based visa categories, including H-1B visas for specialty occupations, E-1 and E-2 treaty trader and investor visas, L-1 visas for intracompany executives and managers, O-1 visas for individuals with extraordinary ability, and TN visas for Canadian and Mexican professionals. It would also cover H-1B1 visas for nationals of Chile and Singapore. The stated goal is to tighten the link between a worker’s legal status and their specific employer, though critics see it as another step in a long pattern of restricting legal immigration pathways.

Soumi Chanda’s experience shows what the loss of that buffer could mean in practice. After nearly 13 years building a career in the United States, the Kolkata native was laid off from her role at Amazon last year. She had secured an H-1B visa on her first attempt, an outcome she described as rare good fortune after years of working through college and in a startup back home. With only 60 days to find new sponsorship or leave, she packed up and returned to India, leaving behind the life she had constructed over more than a decade.

The grace period now under threat was put in place in the final days of the Obama administration and took effect in early 2017. It gave workers a window to search for new employment or adjust their status without immediate risk of removal. The current administration argues the policy created unnecessary administrative work and weakened the tie between visa status and a single employer. If finalized, the rule would reverse that protection and expose workers to swift deportation proceedings the moment their job ends.

Advocates for skilled immigration say the change would punish workers for circumstances often beyond their control, such as corporate layoffs or company closures. Many H-1B holders work in technology, engineering, and research fields where employment can shift quickly. Removing the grace period, they argue, would discourage talented individuals from coming to the United States or force them to leave abruptly, disrupting families, communities, and employers who rely on their contributions.

The proposal arrives amid repeated efforts by the administration to tighten legal immigration rules. Past measures have included higher scrutiny of H-1B applications, restrictions on extensions, and attempts to limit family-based immigration. Each change has been defended as protecting American workers, yet data from previous years shows that many H-1B roles fill positions where domestic talent pools remain limited.

For people like Chanda, the human cost is immediate. After arriving in the United States at 19 and working her way through education and multiple jobs, she had to abandon a life built over years because a single layoff triggered an inflexible deadline. The proposed rule would eliminate even that narrow window, leaving similar workers with no transition time at all.

The Federal Register notice makes clear that the administration views the current grace period as an unnecessary deviation from earlier policy. Whether the public comment period produces meaningful changes remains to be seen. What is certain is that the proposal would place additional pressure on an already complex system that thousands of skilled immigrants navigate each year.