USCIS proposes ending 60-day grace period for nonimmigrant workers

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through its U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has proposed eliminating the discretionary up-to-60-day grace period that currently lets certain nonimmigrant workers remain in the United States after their employment ceases. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published in the Federal Register of Friday, September 11, 2026 (Vol. 91, No. 175, Proposed Rules section, p. 57808), under DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0364 and RIN 1615-AD22.

The proposal would remove 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), restoring what DHS describes as its previous, long-standing policy of not granting the grace period to aliens in the E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN nonimmigrant classifications, or to their dependents, upon cessation of employment before the expiration of the authorized period of stay.

Why DHS wants the change

The grace period was added in the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21) final rule of November 18, 2016 (81 FR 82398), which DHS said was intended to benefit high-skilled immigrants and their U.S. employers. DHS now argues, based on a decade of administering the provision, that the grace period is inconsistent with the statutory purpose of the classifications and adds administrative burden.

• DHS says an alien’s lawful status in these classifications is directly tied to performing the specific employment or activity that formed the basis of admission.
• Once that employment ends, DHS contends, the alien’s status and authorization to remain should cease and the alien should depart unless otherwise authorized to remain.
• The agency also cites the complexity of adjudicating whether a grace period applies, verifying employment end dates, and deciding whether to shorten or eliminate the period.

Administrative burden and alternatives

DHS calculated that 1.9 million petitions and applications received from fiscal year 2018 through May 20, 2026 required USCIS to assess whether the grace period could potentially apply. The agency estimates that approximately 2,886 petitioners would lose the opportunity to file new petitions for affected workers whose employment ended, and that about 99 percent of unique entities filing H-1B petitions relied on the grace period.

DHS considered alternatives before settling on full removal:

• Eliminating the grace period for only some of the listed classifications, which it rejected as inconsistent with the statute.
• Shortening rather than eliminating the period, which it said would not achieve the goal of requiring departure upon cessation of employment.
• Imposing stringent evidentiary requirements, which it said would still leave adjudicators to scrutinize documentation and verify employment end dates.

What happens next

Written comments on the NPRM must be submitted on or before November 10, 2026, through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov, identified by DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0364. DHS notes that comments must be in English and that it cannot accept hand-delivered, couriered, or mailed comments at this time.

The rule has been designated a “significant regulatory action” under section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, though not economically significant, and has been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is not an Executive Order 14192 deregulatory action because it concerns an immigration-related function of the United States.

For foreign workers and their dependents in the United States, the change would mean that losing a job could immediately put them out of status, requiring them to depart or quickly secure new qualifying employment or a change of status. Employers who rely on these classifications would face tighter timelines for filing new petitions, making the outcome of this rulemaking a significant factor for the U.S. workforce and immigration planning.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 175, September 11, 2026, Proposed Rules, p. 57808 (official reference: DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0364; RIN 1615-AD22).