DHS proposes ending the 60-day grace period after a layoff

The Department of Homeland Security has proposed removing the rule that gives certain nonimmigrant workers up to 60 days of lawful status after their job ends. Nothing has changed yet. This is a notice of proposed rulemaking, published in the Federal Register on September 11, 2026, and the public has until November 10 to comment before DHS can finalize it.

What the grace period currently does

Since 2016, workers in the E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN categories, along with their dependents, have been able to stay in the United States for up to 60 days after their employment or qualifying activity ends, even though the job that gave them their status is gone. DHS created the grace period in the same rule that gave STEM optional practical training extensions and other benefits to high-skilled workers, known as the AC21 rule.

In that window, a worker can look for a new employer to sponsor them, file to change to a different status, or wind down their affairs and leave the country without being treated as having violated their status the moment the job ended. Whether the grace period actually applied, and for how long, was always discretionary: USCIS could shorten or eliminate it case by case.

What DHS is proposing to do

Remove it entirely. DHS's stated reasoning is that the grace period breaks what it calls the direct relationship between a person's nonimmigrant status and the specific job or activity that justified their admission, and that deciding whether and how long a grace period applies adds complexity to an already heavy adjudication workload.

If finalized as proposed, a worker in one of the affected categories whose job ends would no longer have a standing 60-day cushion. The practical effect DHS itself acknowledges in the proposal: workers and their dependents who had assumed the grace period would apply, including those who bought homes, paid local taxes, or stayed in the country searching for new employment on that assumption, would lose that protection.

Who this would affect, and who it would not

The categories named in the proposal are E-1, E-2 and E-3 treaty and specialty workers, H-1B and H-1B1 specialty occupation workers, L-1 intracompany transferees, O-1 workers of extraordinary ability, and TN professionals under the USMCA. Dependents in each category are included.

It does not touch F-1 students on Optional Practical Training, who have a separate grace period under different regulations, and it does not change anything about how the H-1B lottery and cap work or which registrations were selected for this year's H-1B cap. This proposal is entirely about what happens after a covered worker's job or qualifying activity ends, not about how they got the status in the first place.

The timeline, and what happens next

The comment period runs to November 10, 2026. DHS must review the comments it receives before it can publish a final rule, and a final rule would set its own effective date, which has not happened and could still be months away, or the rule could change based on the comments before it is finalized. There is no announced effective date because there is no final rule yet.

For now, the 60-day grace period described above remains exactly as it was before this proposal. Anyone relying on it, or advising someone who is, should watch for the final rule rather than acting as though the grace period is already gone. The layoff itself, separately from immigration status, still comes with its own deadlines, covered in the first 30 days after a layoff.

This notice will be updated if DHS publishes a final rule, and the date will change from "proposed" to "final" the day that happens.