DHS is taking public comment through November 10 on ending the discretionary 60-day grace period after E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN employment ends.
Comment here before November 10, 11:59 p.m. ET:
regulations.gov/commenton/US…
Soft time after a layoff is not workforce design. It is often 60 more days of the same "rent the seat" pattern: the job ends, another petition is queued, and no named American was ever built to hold that seat.
Comment if you have watched that loop.
Here is what I filed.
Docket: USCIS-2026-0364
Rule: Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period
I comment on the proposal to remove the discretionary 60-day grace period in 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) for workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN status, and their dependents, when the employment that justified that status ends.
I support ending a grace period that functions as extra time to keep a "rent the seat" design in place. I do not support cruelty for its own sake. The test is whether the rule pushes firms toward building capability in this country, or whether it protects a pattern that never intended to.
📢 What I mean by the 🇺🇸 American System 📢
The American System is an economic design, not a slogan. It is production and innovation done in this country, by building capability here, and then increasing capacity over time. Capability is the people who can do the work and stay to build: named Americans who learn the job, keep the skill, and can take the next person’s place. Capacity is the productive base that compounds on U.S. soil — the plants, yards, labs, and seats that still exist after the current contract ends. Hamilton and Lincoln built America with it.
Temporary or visa labor can be a bridge to American System capability and capacity design. A temporary visa is not a permanent design for the jobs a company cannot afford to lose. A one-week “trainee” next to a visa seat is not a pipeline. A named American who stays, retains the skill, and is on a real succession plan is a pipeline.
🚷 Why this grace period fails that test 🚷
The current grace period was sold as a humane landing. In practice it often works as 60 more days of the same seat design. Employment ends. Status is treated as continuing. Another petitioner files. The seat never had to be rebuilt with people who stay.
That is the employer’s problem to solve in advance — by training named Americans in the same job family — not the public’s problem to paper over after the fact. Soft time that only delays accountability does not build capability. It preserves short-cycle temporary or visa labor as permanent capacity for seats the country needs to own.
I agree with DHS that lawful status in these classifications is tied to the employment that justified admission. When that employment ends, the seat design should not pretend the work is still being done. A grace period that exists so the next visa can be queued, without anyone building a domestic successor, is not a public good.
⚙️ What a final rule should still make clear ⚙️
Removing the grace period is the right direction when the purpose is program integrity and a return to capability-first seat design. A final rule should also say, in plain language, what the grace period is not allowed to become a substitute for:
1. Capability first. Named Americans in the same occupation, not a token trainee listed on a slide. American skill that remains in the firm when a visa holder leaves.
2. Capacity second, when the seat rental repeats (renews). If the same employer keeps coming back to these classifications, that is evidence the bridge was never used as a bridge. Repeated "rent the seat" is a seat design choice. It is not a law of nature.
Do not treat extra days after a layoff as workforce design policy. Workforce design policy is whether U.S. firms build the American people and the productive American base they claim they cannot find. Operating in the US is not workforce neutral. End the grace period that protects the opposite design. Keep the standard simple: American capability first; American capacity when renewal or continued dependence shows American capability was never built.
🔗 in reply, deadline November 10, 11:59 p.m. ET