American entrepreneur says ‘I’m shocked but honestly not surprised’ as US plans to remove 60-day grace period for H-1Bs
American entrepreneur James Blunt, who speaks on social media about immigration issues, said he’s shocked but not surprised as the US administration drops another new proposal that would affect millions of foreign workers. When an H-1B worker loses their job in the US, they are allowed to stay in the country for 60 days which allows them to look for another job. But the Department of Homeland Security is advancing a proposal to do away with this grace period, Bloomberg reported.“Think about how ridiculous that is. 60 days is 8 weeks,” Blunt said.“An American leaving a high-paying professional job can easily spend longer than 8 weeks interviewing and finding the right position and they don’t have their legal ability to remain in the country tied to the outcome,” he said. “An H-1B worker has to find the job, interview, get the offer, find an employer willing to sponsor the visa and get the immigration process moving.”“And these are people who can lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Company downsizes on Friday and apparently your immigration status should start imploding on Monday? What exactly is accomplished by making an already stressful situation deliberately cruel?” Blunt asked.
What is the 60-day rule?
The 60-day grace period was created by regulation in 2016 and took effect in early 2017. Under the rule, E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN nonimmigrants and their dependents are not considered to have failed to maintain their nonimmigrant status only because the principal’s employment ceased. The grace period for a minimum of 60 days or until the I-94 expiration date. It is available once during each authorized petition validity period. DHS has the discretion to refuse or shorten the grace period but has rarely done so.This period was created to allow immigrants to look for another employment or to change their status without leaving the US.Without this grace period, anyone who loses a job in the US could become an illegal. But this is only a proposal now which will have to first clear federal review and then it would b published for a public comment period of 30 to 60 days. The proposal will become reality only after it’s finalized.Immigration attorney Emilu Neumann said it is DHS’s ongoing attack on legal immigration as the 60-day grace period has been a lifeline for workers facing layoffs.
US employers will be impacted
Attorney Adrian Pandev said the new proposal, if it becomes a rule, would impact US employers as much as employees. “The 60-day grace period allows an employee to give ample notice to their current employer prior to changing jobs. The employee knows that even if the new H-1B filing is delayed for some reason, they have the grace period to fall back on,” he said.“Without it, the employee is incentivized to not mention anything to their current employer until the new petition is filed or even approved. That means the current employer could be finding out they are losing a team member on extremely short notice,” he added. ā
