US may scrap the 60-day job search window for H-1B, L-1, O-1 and E-2 visas

In brief

• The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on 11 September 2026 (91 FR 57807). Comments are accepted until 10 November 2026 inclusive.
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to remove 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), the up to 60-day grace period.
• The change covers E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN classifications and their dependents.
• If adopted, status would end together with the employment or activity it was granted for.
• This is a proposal. DHS will publish a final rule after reviewing comments; no date is set.

What DHS proposes

The grace period entered US regulations in January 2017. It gives a foreigner in a work classification up to 60 days if employment ends before the authorised stay. During that time they can find a new employer to file a new petition, change to another status or prepare to leave. It may be used once per validity period and cannot extend beyond the authorised stay.

In the proposal DHS says it wants to restore the policy in place before 2017. In the department's view, status in work classifications is directly tied to the specific employment or activity for which the foreigner was admitted, and the grace period breaks that link. Its second argument is reducing administrative burden.

The rule covers all the main employer- or activity-linked work classifications:

Dependants - spouses and children on derivative visas - currently share the grace period with the principal. Under the proposal they lose that option at the same time.

What this means for you. If you are in the US on a work visa or an E-2, once the rule takes effect you will not have two months to find a way out after losing your job. Plan for a layoff or business closure in advance.

Before and after

The main practical change is time. Today a laid-off worker has up to 60 days for a new employer to file a petition. Under the proposal that filing must be made before the last working day. In practice a change of employer must be prepared while still in the old job.

Processing times matter too. A new H-1B or L-1 petition takes weeks or months unless premium processing is paid. Without a grace period any gap between the old and new job becomes a status violation. For families this is especially sensitive: when the principal loses status, so do the spouse and children, including children in school.

Who is hit hardest

The rule would hit H-1B specialists hardest in industries with mass layoffs: technology, finance and consulting. They are the ones the grace period most often helped to find a new position. For E-2 investors the situation differs: their status is tied to their own business, and the end of "employment" usually means closing or selling the company. But the proposal removes their time to regroup too: selling a business without a prepared plan could leave the family without status.

For intracompany transferees on L-1 visas, status is tied to a specific company, so a reorganisation or closure of the US branch without a plan becomes riskier. People on an O-1 visa should think ahead about who would be the next petitioner if the current engagement ends.

The rule does not affect green card holders or those who came through the EB-5 investment programme and obtained permanent status. For an investor choosing between a temporary E-2 and an EB-5 immigrant visa, the proposal is another argument for permanent status. See EB-5 timelines by country in the Visa Bulletin and costs in our article on the price of EB-5.

Three examples

• An H-1B engineer is laid off on 15 March with authorised stay until the end of 2027. Today he has until mid-May for a new employer to file a petition. Under the proposal his status and that of his wife and children end on 15 March. If no new petition was filed in advance, the family falls out of status that same day.
• An E-2 investor sells the restaurant his visa rests on. Today, after closing, he has up to 60 days to start a new business and file a new application or leave. Under the proposal the sale must be planned so the new application is filed before the business passes to the buyer.
• An L-1 manager learns that his company's US branch is closing. Under the proposal his status is tied to work at that branch, and after closure he will have no time to transfer to another group company or change visa.

In all three cases the answer is the same: transitions must be prepared in advance. The rule does not ban changing jobs or visas; it removes the time cushion for doing so.

What a worker still has

Even without a grace period a foreign worker keeps lawful options. A new employer can file a petition while the person is still in the old job; for H-1B, portability lets the worker start with the new employer once the petition is filed. A change of status to another classification can be filed before employment ends. And departure with a visa application at a consulate abroad always remains.

But each route takes time and paperwork, which means planning. If someone learns of a layoff on their last day, without a grace period they have almost no options. So lawyers advise foreign workers to keep documents for a new petition in order and to know who could be their next employer.

What employers should do

For companies that hire foreign specialists, the rule means new planning obligations. Layoffs, reorganisations and closures will have to be aligned with employees' status dates, or the company will in effect end people's lawful stay on their last day. Good practice is to give foreign staff advance notice of a layoff so they have time to file, and to plan reorganisation timelines with an immigration lawyer.

Employers should also review internal policies: who tracks employees' status dates, how quickly the company can file a petition for a transfer, and whether it is ready to pay for premium processing when time is short. Companies that build this into their HR process will keep foreign talent; those that do not will lose it at the first reorganisation.

Part of a broader course

Removing the grace period is not the only tightening for work visas. DHS recently also proposed ending deference to prior approvals when extending E, L and O status, so each extension would be reviewed as a new case. And in October 2026 DHS finalised the end of automatic extensions of employment authorisation documents (EADs) for certain categories. Together these measures make a foreign worker's US status less flexible and demand more planning.

The department's logic is the same across all these documents: status must strictly match the basis on which it was granted. For employers and foreign staff this means more paperwork, more preparation time and less room for error.

Why it matters to investors

For affluent families choosing a route to the US, the rule changes the calculation. The temporary E-2 visa is convenient: fast, no queue, renewable while the business operates. But it has always been tied to the business, and that tie is now getting tighter. Any business mistake, or a sale or closure without a plan, puts the whole family's status at risk.

So we advise investors to see the E-2 as a first step rather than an end goal and to think about permanent status in parallel. For nationals of countries without an E-2 treaty, the route to the US often starts with a second citizenship from a treaty country. This decision should take all of 2026's tightening into account.

If you are weighing a US move now, the safest plan combines a temporary status that lets you start quickly with a clear path to permanent residence, so that a single event such as a sale, layoff or reorganisation cannot end your family's right to stay.

What the comments do

The comment period is a mandatory stage. DHS must consider the arguments and respond to significant ones in the final rule. As of 9 November more than 28,800 comments had been filed, a lot for a technical rule. Comments are submitted via regulations.gov under docket USCIS-2026-0364, in English. Emails to officials do not count as comments.

After the period closes DHS may publish the final rule unchanged, amend it or abandon it. The law sets no deadline: months usually pass between a proposal and a final rule. We are watching the register and will update this report when the final text appears.

What to do now

Our team helps investors and specialists choose a route to the US and prepares documents. Business options are collected in our section on business residence, and options for specialists in the section on residence for talent. If you need a second passport for US travel, see our article on the Argentine passport and the US, and all citizenship programmes in our catalogue. We will review your situation in an online consultation.