The Trump administration is widening its crackdown on the H-1B system, targeting two major benefits tied to the program: work permits for certain visa holders’ spouses and the grace period that allows laid-off foreign workers to remain in the country while seeking another job.
The Department of Homeland Security has revived a plan to eliminate employment authorization for certain spouses of H-1B workers who are in the United States on H-4 dependent visas.
At the same time, a separate DHS proposal to eliminate the current 60-day grace period for H-1B workers after they lose their jobs has cleared review at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, putting that rule on track for public release.
Together with the administration’s newly proposed $103,265 fee for cap-subject H-1B petitions, the moves represent a broader effort to reshape a visa program that critics have long accused corporations of using to import cheaper labor while American workers compete for the same jobs.
Under a rule adopted during the Obama administration in 2015, certain spouses of H-1B workers became eligible to apply for employment authorization while their families waited through the employment-based green card process.
Not every H-4 spouse qualifies. The benefit generally applies when the H-1B worker is the beneficiary of an approved Form I-140 immigrant petition or has received certain extensions beyond the ordinary six-year H-1B limit.
For those who do qualify, however, the Employment Authorization Document allows the spouse to work independently in the United States. Trump’s DHS is now considering taking that authorization away.
The proposal appears on the department’s regulatory agenda under the title, “Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses From the Classes of Noncitizens Eligible for Employment Authorization.”
That does not mean current H-4 work permits have been canceled. The proposal remains a long-term regulatory action, and DHS has not provided a target date for its release. Before any change could take effect, the administration would have to go through the formal rulemaking process.
As mentioned earlier, the White House has also cleared a DHS proposal eliminating the 60-day grace period that currently protects H-1B workers after an employer terminates them.
Since 2017, H-1B workers who lose their jobs have generally been given up to 60 days to find another sponsor, change immigration status or leave the United States.
Under the Trump proposal, that automatic cushion would disappear. The change would make the visa even more dependent on continued employment and potentially reduce the ability of foreign workers to move between companies after a layoff.
The two proposals arrive only days after DHS unveiled an even more dramatic H-1B change: a proposed $103,265 additional fee on every cap-subject petition.
The fee would apply to the regular 65,000 H-1B slots and the additional 20,000 visas reserved for workers with advanced degrees from American universities.
DHS says the figure is based on approximately $8.8 billion in federal costs associated with administering and supporting immigration programs, divided across the 85,000 annual cap-subject petitions. The administration’s argument is straightforward: Employers that want foreign workers should bear more of the cost of the system that supplies them.
DHS cited research finding that H-1B workers are paid substantially less than similarly situated American workers after accounting for factors such as education, occupation and geography.
That goes to the central controversy surrounding H-1B. The program was designed to provide access to specialized foreign talent, not simply to enlarge the labor supply and suppress professional wages.
Yet demand remains enormous. USCIS received nearly 344,000 registrations for fiscal year 2026 despite the statutory cap of 85,000.
The Trump administration is now attacking H-1B visa loopholes from several directions at once: making H-1B sponsorship more expensive, eliminating the two-month cushion after job loss and potentially removing work authorization for certain dependent spouses.
Neither of the changes involving H-4 spouses or the grace period is final yet, and both could face legal challenges before implementation.
But this is a real wake-up call for foreigners who have been exploiting America's overly lenient immigration system. The administration is making the H-1B program more expensive for employers, less flexible for visa workers and less economically advantageous for their families.
For companies accustomed to treating H-1B hiring as a routine part of their labor strategy, that era may be coming to an end.