Chandigarh (Gurpreet Singh): The United States government has unveiled a regulatory proposal to eliminate the discretionary 60-day grace period that currently permits laid-off foreign specialty workers and their dependants to legally remain in the country while searching for alternative employment. Released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the draft measure targets several non-immigrant employment visa categories, including H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN, E-1, E-2, E-3, and H-1B1 classifications. If adopted, the amended regulations would require affected professionals to depart the United States immediately upon the cessation of their employment, fundamentally altering the legal buffer that has shielded international professionals from instant deportation since 2017.
The anticipated rule change threatens to disproportionately impact Indian professionals, who represent the overwhelming majority of high-skilled guest workers in the American technology sector. According to data from the Migration Policy Institute, Indian nationals accounted for approximately 71 per cent of all approved H-1B specialty occupation visas issued during fiscal year 2024. Under current regulations codified in 2016 under the Obama administration, laid-off visa holders are granted a continuous grace period of up to 60 days—or until their authorised validity period expires—allowing them adequate time to interview, secure new corporate sponsorship, lodge fresh immigration petitions, or orderly transition their affairs.
By contrast, the new framework would strip foreign nationals of any transitional stay. A laid-off software developer or engineer would face immediate loss of valid legal status the day following termination, preventing them from remaining inside the country while interviewing for positions or completing visa transfer petitions under standard change-of-status protocols. Workers unable to establish a separate lawful basis would be obliged to leave the country alongside their dependants, undertaking subsequent job transitions and re-entry procedures entirely from abroad.
Defending the proposed policy shift, the Department of Homeland Security stated that the existing grace period creates an artificial disconnect between an immigrant’s lawful non-immigrant status and the actual underlying employment that legally justifies their stay. The agency also asserted that determining individual eligibility for the discretionary period places an unsustainable administrative workload on United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators, pointing out that more than 1.9 million petitions and applications required evaluation under the provision between fiscal year 2018 and May 2026. The department further framed the reform as an effort to ensure domestic employers first examine local labour pools before filling vacant roles.
The measure marks the latest restrictive development within a wider push by the Trump administration to tighten employment-based legal migration and increase regulatory scrutiny over high-skilled visa mechanisms. Although the draft rule represents a critical procedural step forward, the measure is not yet in immediate effect. The proposal must clear a mandatory 60-day public notice-and-comment window before the federal government can assess stakeholder feedback and consider issuing a final enforceable directive.
