For the roughly 730,000 H-1B visa holders currently living in the United States, the 60-day post-employment cushion that has existed since 2017 may be weeks away from formal elimination. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has forwarded a proposed rule, catalogued as RIN 1615-AD22, to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. If it clears that review and survives the public comment window, the legal consequence is blunt: the moment your employment ends, so does your lawful nonimmigrant status.

This is not a minor procedural adjustment. The 60-day window, codified at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), is the only structured interval foreign workers have to locate a new sponsor, file a change-of-status petition, or begin organizing an orderly departure from the country. Removing it converts a routine layoff into an immediate immigration crisis, reshapes how H-1B holders behave inside their current workplaces, and alters the workforce risk calculus for every employer that depends on this talent pool.

What DHS is actually proposing

The 60-day grace period was introduced through a 2016 regulation and took effect in early 2017. It is codified at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) under the Code of Federal Regulations and covers workers on E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN nonimmigrant visas, along with their eligible dependents. The period runs for up to 60 days or until the worker's I-94 authorized stay expires, whichever comes first, and is generally available once per authorized petition validity period. According to immigration law firm Fragomen, DHS has rarely exercised its discretion to shorten or deny the period since the rule went into effect.

Under the Administrative Procedure Act, DHS cannot eliminate the grace period through informal guidance; it requires notice-and-comment rulemaking. The proposed rule currently sits with OIRA. After OMB clearance, DHS would publish it in the Federal Register and open a public comment period expected to last 30 to 60 days before any final version is issued. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has previously acknowledged this rulemaking requirement.

If the rule is finalized, workers who lose their jobs would generally be unable to change status or transfer to a new employer from within the United States unless USCIS exercises discretionary authority to forgive the lapse. There is a telling precedent running in the opposite direction: in a 2024 rulemaking covering H-2 agricultural and seasonal workers, DHS itself acknowledged that grace periods give workers time to respond to sudden employment changes, seek new employment, or organize their departure. The current proposal reverses that stated logic for H-1B and related categories.

Who is affected, and by how much

USCIS approved 399,402 H-1B petitions covering both initial and continuing employment in fiscal year 2024. Of those approved beneficiaries, 71 percent were born in India. In 2025, of 406,348 H-1B applications approved, 283,772 came from Indian nationals, accounting for 69.9 percent of the total. Immigration-policy group FWD.us estimates there are about 730,000 H-1B holders living in the United States alongside approximately 550,000 dependent family members. The broader Indian-American population is estimated at 5.2 million.

The exposure is not evenly distributed across industries. Big Tech employers such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta receive the most attention in H-1B headlines, but healthcare systems, university research programs, and mid-market engineering firms often operate with far thinner immigration-legal capacity. The smaller and less well-resourced the sponsoring employer, the sharper the impact when the grace period disappears. H-4 dependents of H-1B holders would also face immigration consequences if the principal worker cannot maintain status after a termination, meaning an entire family's lawful presence in the United States can hinge on a single employment decision.

For employees on H-1B: what changes for you

The 60-day buffer was never generous. Immigration attorney Srinivas Kumar described the current reality in direct terms, noting that by the time most applicants find a prospective employer willing to sponsor their H-1B, more than half the grace period has already elapsed, with the remaining time consumed by paperwork and the petition process.

"The current grace period of 60 days is already very short. By the time most applicants find another prospective job and an employer who is ready to sponsor their H-1B, more than half of the grace period has already passed. The remaining time is taken up by paperwork and the application process." - Srinivas Kumar, immigration attorney

Ajay Jain Bhutoria, a former White House advisor who during his tenure under then-President Joe Biden had proposed extending the grace period from 60 to 180 days, described the reversal as a severe regression that directly harms legal immigrants who have contributed to the United States' technological and economic leadership.

"Eliminating the 60-day grace period is inhumane and unworkable. When a 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." - Ajay Jain Bhutoria, former White House advisor

There is also a subtler behavioral consequence that reshapes how H-1B workers interact with current employers long before any layoff occurs. American immigration attorney Adrian Pandev flagged the incentive shift publicly, observing that without the grace period, an employee has every rational reason to conceal job-search activity from their current employer until a new petition is filed or even approved, leaving that employer to discover they are losing a team member on extremely short notice.

Practically speaking, three areas deserve immediate attention for anyone currently on an H-1B. First, verify your exact immigration posture: confirm your I-94 expiry date, your petition validity period, and whether you hold an approved I-140 immigrant petition. An approved I-140, on its own, does not grant permission to remain employed or stay indefinitely in the United States after losing the job supporting your nonimmigrant status. Second, build a discreet network of potential sponsors before you need one. Third, understand that the documentation standard at USCIS has already shifted: on August 5, 2026, USCIS issued guidance permitting immigration officers to deny applications or petitions - including green card filings - without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny.

Prachi Shah, founder and managing attorney at Prachi Shah Law, summarized the new documentation standard by noting that applicants should no longer assume USCIS will provide a second opportunity to correct an incomplete or inadequately documented filing.

"The principal change is that applicants should no longer assume that USCIS will provide a second opportunity to correct an incomplete or inadequately documented filing." - Prachi Shah, founder and managing attorney, Prachi Shah Law

Some workers are already planning further ahead. Sukanya Raman, country head for India at immigration-focused law firm Davies and Associates, said her team is seeing early signals of a shift toward longer-horizon planning, with H-1B professionals exploring options such as the EB-5 investor visa program for a more stable path to permanent residency.

For HR and employers: the retention lever you did not ask for

For people operations leaders in sectors that depend heavily on H-1B talent, the elimination of the grace period changes the workforce risk model in two directions simultaneously. On paper, it appears to hand employers additional leverage: an H-1B worker who considers leaving now faces immediate status loss the moment sponsorship ends, raising the personal cost of departure significantly. In practice, that same dynamic erodes trust and damages information flow inside the organization.

Adrian Pandev's observation that departing workers will conceal job-search activity until a new petition is nearly approved is not a hypothetical risk. It is a predictable rational response to a rule that turns any visible signal of intent to leave into an existential immigration risk. The downstream consequences are concrete: effective notice periods shrink toward zero, handovers become chaotic, and workforce planning loses one of its most useful early-warning inputs - the candid conversation about someone's next career move. Pandev added plainly that this would impact US employers as much as employees.

Ankita Singh, founder of Sarvaank Associates, framed the competitive stakes in terms of talent strategy, arguing that removing the safety net does not just destabilize families; it severely undermines American corporate competitiveness by turning routine economic adjustments into a tool that works against top-tier foreign talent.

"Stripping away this safety net doesn't just destabilise Indian families rooted in the US; it severely undermines American corporate competitiveness by weaponising routine economic adjustments against top-tier foreign talent." - Ankita Singh, founder, Sarvaank Associates

Sukanya Raman of Davies and Associates pointed to the broader uncertainty the proposal introduces into US immigration policy for skilled workers.

"H-1B visa holders could soon lose more than a job with the proposed DHS rule coming into effect, as it will bring more uncertainty around US immigration policy for Indians." - Sukanya Raman, country head for India, Davies and Associates

Three operational reviews are worth completing now, before a final rule is published. First, audit your H-1B roster by role, I-94 expiry date, I-140 approval status, and team criticality. Without that map, any workforce continuity plan is guesswork. Second, revisit severance and offboarding protocols specifically for visa-dependent staff - including whether your packages offer any transition support, extended benefits access, or immigration-counsel referrals. How employers handle this will appear quickly in verified company reviews and employer brand perceptions. Third, recalibrate your recruitment pipeline for a talent pool that may be more risk-averse than it was a year ago. Candidates on H-1B are evaluating sponsor reliability as a core offer attribute, and organizations seen as genuine partners rather than compliance minimalists will have an edge on shortlists.

Keshav Singhania, head of private client at Singhania and Co., described the downstream effect on workforce mobility, noting that scrapping the grace period would make job losses far more disruptive and remove the breathing room workers currently use to find a new employer, change visa status, or plan their next move.

The wider policy backdrop

The grace-period proposal does not arrive in isolation. In September 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation seeking an additional $100,000 payment for certain new H-1B petitions filed for workers outside the United States; a federal court subsequently blocked the fee in State of California v. Mullin. Separately, DHS finalized a rule expanding the existing $4,000 and $4,500 biometric screening fees to some H-1B and L-1 visa extension petitions. Read together across the full H-1B lifecycle, the direction of regulatory travel is consistent: higher cost, narrower compliance margins, and less room for error at every stage.

Ajay Jain Bhutoria has publicly urged DHS and the administration to withdraw the proposal and instead adopt a 180-day grace period that he argued would respect human dignity while protecting American competitiveness.

"This proposal strikes at the heart of the South Asian immigrant community and skilled workforce. I urge DHS and the administration to withdraw this proposal immediately and instead adopt a compassionate, pragmatic 180-day grace period that respects human dignity and protects America's competitive edge." - Ajay Jain Bhutoria, former White House advisor

What to watch next

The next inflection point is OMB clearance and publication in the Federal Register. When that happens, the 30-to-60-day public comment window opens, and it is the last structured opportunity for workers, employers, industry associations, and legal specialists to formally push back before a final rule is issued. The Administrative Procedure Act's notice-and-comment requirement means this window is legally meaningful, not ceremonial; substantive comments on the H-2 rulemaking precedent and the internal DHS acknowledgment of grace-period value could inform any subsequent legal challenge.

Immigration attorney Srinivas Kumar offered a direct assessment of what the proposal signals more broadly, calling removing the grace period a very inhuman move and arguing that while authorities should strengthen rules to prevent exploitation, the current trajectory points toward a near-elimination of legal immigration pathways altogether.

"Removing the grace period will be a very inhuman move by DHS. Authorities must strengthen the rules to prevent exploitation, but instead, the current administration is looking at virtually killing immigration altogether." - Srinivas Kumar, immigration attorney

Between now and Federal Register publication, the practical guidance from immigration attorneys across the board converges on a single point: plan as if the buffer is already gone, document every filing as though there is no second chance to correct it, and build your sponsor network before you need it.

Key takeaways

• DHS has sent proposed rule RIN 1615-AD22 to the White House OIRA, seeking to eliminate the 60-day post-employment grace period for H-1B and related visa categories including E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN.
• Approximately 730,000 H-1B holders and 550,000 dependents currently live in the United States; 71 percent of fiscal year 2024 approved beneficiaries were born in India.
• For workers, eliminating the grace period means any layoff triggers an immediate loss of lawful status, and rational incentives shift toward concealing job-search activity from current sponsors.
• For HR teams, the proposal creates a short-term retention dynamic but corrodes trust, compresses effective notice periods, and damages honest workforce transition planning.
• USCIS also issued guidance on August 5, 2026, allowing officers to deny petitions and green card applications without first issuing an RFE, raising the documentation bar simultaneously.
• The next milestone is Federal Register publication and a 30-to-60-day public comment window; until then, plan as if the 60-day buffer no longer exists.