White House clears review of plan to end 60-day H-1B grace period

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 28, 2026 21:56 IST

The White House has completed its review of a proposal to remove the 60-day grace period that allows foreign workers, mostly on H-1B visas, to look for a new job after losing employment. The proposal was sent by the Department of Homeland Security to the Office of Management and Budget for review earlier this month, though its details are not yet publicly available.

If the proposal is finalised, certain principal nonimmigrants and their dependants would lose the 60-day grace period if the principal’s employment ends before their permitted stay expires. The next step is publication in the Federal Register, followed by a public comment period that usually lasts 30 to 60 days. The exact content of the rule will be known only after publication.

The 60-day grace period was introduced in 2017 to let foreign workers and their dependants remain in the US while searching for fresh employment after a job loss. Immigration consultants said the Department of Homeland Security already has the discretion to shorten or deny the grace period, but has rarely done so.

The rule applies to nonimmigrant visa holders in the E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN categories, along with their dependants. The grace period also helps US employers make employment changes more easily for existing or newly recruited nonimmigrant workers.

If the 60-day grace period is removed, foreign nationals whose employment ends early, along with their dependants, would generally have to leave the US immediately. They would not be able to change their status or employer within the US unless the US Citizenship and Immigration Services uses its discretion to excuse the lapse in status.

The Indian-American population in the US is estimated at 5.2 million. Indian nationals are among the biggest beneficiaries of H-1B employment visas and made up 71 per cent of all successful applicants in the 2024 fiscal year.

Former White House adviser Ajay Jain Bhutoria criticised the proposed regulation to remove the 60-day post-termination grace period for H-1B, L-1 and O-1 nonimmigrant visa holders, and argued that it should instead be extended to 180 days. “Eliminating the 60-day grace period is both inhumane and unworkable. When a high-skilled worker faces a sudden termination, 60 days is already dangerously short. Stripping away this protection entirely leaves thousands of law-abiding individuals with zero time to wrap up their lives,” said Bhutoria, who was an adviser to President Joe Biden.

Bhutoria said families would be uprooted overnight and pushed into chaos through no fault of their own after years of hard work and tax contributions. “People will not even have the time required to manage their leases, transition their children out of schools, or handle personal affairs,” he said. For now, the proposal has cleared White House review and is awaiting publication, which will reveal its exact provisions and open it for public feedback.

With PTI Inputs

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