A Department of Homeland Security plan to eliminate the 60-day window that lets H-1B workers look for a new job after losing one cleared White House review on Thursday. The move would strip away a protection that agency regulations have allowed since 2017.
The change matters now because it could land soon, and it would hit H-1B specialty occupation workers at the moment they are most vulnerable: after an employment termination, when they currently have 60 days to change status or find a new sponsor. For workers caught in that gap, the difference between staying in the country and having to leave can turn on a clock that is measured in weeks, not months.
That review came from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House office that screens federal rules before they are released. The plan is one of a series of Trump administration measures affecting the H-1B program, putting it alongside a proposal this week that would impose a $103,265 fee for new hires. Taken together, the moves show a broader effort to tighten pressure on the visa system from both ends: fewer days to recover after a job loss and a far higher cost to bring in new workers.
The friction is hard to miss. The 60-day window has existed under agency regulations since 2017, yet the administration is advancing a proposal that would erase it at the same time it is moving ahead with a steep new fee for fresh H-1B hires. That combination leaves workers and employers facing a narrower path in which losing a job can trigger an immediate immigration problem, while finding a replacement job becomes more expensive for companies that might otherwise step in.
What comes next is publication. The proposal has already cleared review, which usually means the text is close to becoming public, but no specific release date has been given. When it appears, it will set out the exact terms of the change and give H-1B workers, employers and lawyers their first full look at how far the Department of Homeland Security wants to go.
