USCIS Grace Period Rules: 60 Days, New Employer, and Travel

If you hold an employment-based visa and lose your job, the H-1B 60-day grace period gives you up to 60 consecutive calendar days from your last paid date to line up a new sponsoring employer, file a change of status, or prepare to leave the United States.¹ The same window applies to workers in several other classifications, and it runs whether you resigned or were laid off.² Miss the deadline and the consequences escalate quickly, from a voided visa to bars on returning that can last a decade.

Who Gets the 60 Days

The grace period covers workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, and TN classifications. Dependents on visas like H-4 and L-2 are covered under the same window as the primary worker, and a dependent spouse with a valid Employment Authorization Document keeps that work authorization during the grace period.²

You get one 60-day grace period per authorized employer petition validity period.² If you use it to transfer from Employer A to Employer B and Employer B later terminates you during a new petition validity period, you become eligible for a fresh 60 days under that new petition.

When the Clock Starts

The 60 days begin the day after your last day of employment, which USCIS treats as the final date for which you received a salary or wage.² Severance changes the math. If your employer keeps you on payroll for a few weeks after your last day in the office, your grace period starts from that later payroll end date, not the day you were told your job was over. Get written confirmation of your final paid date, because that date drives everything else.

The 60 Days Is a Ceiling

Two limits shrink the window. First, the grace period cannot extend past the expiration date on your I-94 record. If your I-94 expires in 30 days, your grace period is 30 days.² Second, the regulation says DHS may shorten or eliminate the grace period at its discretion, particularly where there is evidence of unauthorized employment or other violations.¹

USCIS does not confirm your grace period in advance. The agency evaluates whether it applied to your situation when it later reviews a petition, change of status application, or adjustment of status application.² Documentation is the closest thing to proof you’ll have: keep your termination letter, final pay stub, I-94, and copies of anything you file.

What You Can Do During the 60 Days

Find a New Sponsoring Employer

For most workers, the goal is a new employer willing to file Form I-129 on your behalf before the grace period ends. H-1B workers have an added advantage called portability: you can begin working for the new employer as soon as they properly file the petition with USCIS or as of the requested start date, whichever is later.³ You do not wait for approval. The new employer does have to submit a valid Labor Condition Application along with the petition.⁴

Change Your Nonimmigrant Status

If a new sponsor isn’t likely, you can file Form I-539 to change to a different nonimmigrant status. Common moves include switching to a dependent classification like H-4 or L-2 if your spouse holds an eligible visa, or to B-2 visitor status to buy time before departure.⁵ The application has to be filed before the 60 days expire and it must be non-frivolous.

Once USCIS receives a timely, non-frivolous application, you enter a period of authorized stay that lasts while the application is pending, even after the 60-day window has passed.² Unlawful presence does not accrue during that time, provided you do not work without authorization.

Apply for Adjustment of Status

If you already have an approved immigrant petition and an immigrant visa number is available, you can file Form I-485 during the grace period.⁶ This is only an option for workers whose priority date is current, but for those who qualify it is a path to stay long-term.

Compelling Circumstances Employment Authorization

Workers with an approved I-140 whose priority date is not yet current may request a temporary EAD based on compelling circumstances. You must be in E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, O-1, or L-1 status (or in your grace period), hold an approved I-140 in the first, second, or third employment-based preference category, and not yet have filed Form I-485.⁷ USCIS decides case by case, and qualifying situations generally involve serious illness, disability, or employer misconduct rather than a routine layoff.

What You Cannot Do

No Work Without Authorization

The 60-day grace period does not authorize employment. The regulation is explicit that you may not work during the period following cessation of employment.¹ The one exception is H-1B portability, which lets you begin working for a new sponsoring employer once that employer files a proper petition. Freelancing, consulting, or side work for your old employer during the grace period all count as unauthorized employment, and unauthorized employment can bar you from adjusting to permanent resident status entirely.⁸

No International Travel

Leaving the United States during the 60-day grace period terminates it immediately. USCIS is unambiguous: the grace period ends upon any departure, and you would need a separate immigration status that permits re-entry to come back.² An H-1B worker who travels abroad after job loss can seek new U.S. employment from overseas and re-enter for any remaining period of H-1B status, but that requires a valid visa stamp and a new employer’s petition.

The travel restriction continues after you file. If you depart while a change of status application is pending, USCIS treats the application as abandoned.⁹ That single trip destroys both the grace period and the filing you made to protect yourself.

Other Grace Periods You Might Confuse With This One

A separate 10-day window applies to workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, L-1, and TN classifications and their dependents on either end of an authorized petition validity period: up to 10 days before the start date to enter and settle in, and up to 10 days after the end date to prepare to depart or file to extend or change status.¹ Work is not permitted during either 10-day window. H-1B1 and O-1 workers are covered by the 60-day rule but not this 10-day provision.

Students and exchange visitors follow different rules altogether. F-1 students get 60 days after completing their program of study and any authorized period of Optional Practical Training to depart, apply to a new academic program, or file a change of status.¹⁰ M-1 vocational students get 30 days. J-1 exchange visitors get a 30-day travel and departure period during which they are no longer in J-1 status and cannot work.¹¹ None of these operate the same way as the 60-day post-termination grace period for employment-based workers.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

The grace period is a hard cutoff. If you neither file an application nor depart by the time the 60 days expire, you begin accruing unlawful presence the next day. Under federal law, a nonimmigrant who remains beyond an authorized period of stay has their visa stamp automatically voided. Even if the physical stamp in your passport has not expired, it is no longer valid for entry, and any future visa must be obtained through consular processing abroad.

The harsher consequences activate when you eventually leave:

More than 180 days but less than one year of unlawful presence in a single stay, followed by departure, triggers a three-year bar on re-admission.¹²
One year or more of unlawful presence, followed by departure or removal, extends the bar to ten years.¹²

Departure is what triggers the bar, not the overstay by itself. Someone with six months of unlawful presence who leaves faces a three-year ban. Someone in the same situation who files a non-frivolous change of status application before accruing unlawful presence avoids the bars entirely, because the pending application stops the clock.² Timely filing during the 60-day window is the difference between preserving your immigration options and losing access to the country for years.

First Week Priorities

The 60 days move faster than most people expect. In the first few days after your job ends, these steps matter most:

Pin down your last paid date in writing. If severance runs as continued salary, confirm whether the payroll end date extends past your last day in the office. That date sets your deadline.
Check your I-94 expiration on the CBP I-94 website. Your grace period ends at 60 days or the I-94 expiration, whichever comes first.
Start the job search on day one. For H-1B holders, a new employer only needs to file the petition before the 60 days end for you to start working.
Prepare a backup change of status application in parallel. Filing to H-4 (if your spouse has H-1B) or B-2 stops the unlawful-presence clock even if a new job doesn’t come together in time.
Stay in the country. Any departure terminates the grace period and, if you’ve already filed, abandons the application.
Keep records: termination letter, final pay stub, I-94 printout, and copies of every filing.

If a new employer petition is realistic, premium processing on the petition can be worth the added fee when 60 days is all you have. If it isn’t, filing something non-frivolous before the window closes is the move that protects the rest of your options.

1
eCFR. 8 CFR 214.1 – Requirements for Admission, Extension, and Maintenance of Status
2
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Options for Nonimmigrant Workers Following Termination of Employment
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. FAQs for Individuals in H-1B Nonimmigrant Status
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 62W – What Is Portability and to Whom Does It Apply
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Change My Nonimmigrant Status
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 3 – Certain Employment-Based Immigrants in Compelling Circumstances
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 6 – Unauthorized Employment
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Change of Status, Extension of Stay, and Length of Stay
10
Department of Homeland Security. Complete Program
11
U.S. Department of State. Adjustments and Extensions
12
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility