A Runway If the Job Ends

If your right to live in the United States depends on your job, a layoff is two emergencies at once: the paycheck stops, and a clock starts on your status. This chapter explains what that clock is, how to size the cash reserve that buys you time on it, and which money decisions are worth making before anything goes wrong. The immigration rules here are summarized from the regulation itself so you know what to ask; the answer for your own case belongs to an immigration attorney.

The clock: what the grace period is, and what it is not

For workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN status, and their dependents, the regulation at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) says you are not treated as having lost status solely because the job ended, for up to 60 consecutive days or until the end of your authorized stay, whichever is shorter. Four details in that sentence matter for money planning.

1. It is "up to" 60 days. If your I-94 ends sooner, the shorter date wins. The same rule lets the Department of Homeland Security shorten or eliminate the period at its discretion.
2. It is available once per authorized validity period. A second layoff on the same approval may not come with a second grace period.
3. It is not permission to work. Unless you have separate work authorization, you cannot earn a paycheck during it. Your savings carry the whole load.
4. It starts when the employment ends. The regulation runs the period from the cessation of employment, so the date your employment officially ends matters, and a severance or notice-period arrangement can make that date different from your last day at work. Ask the employer in writing for your official end date, and have an attorney read it if severance is involved.

Within the period, USCIS lists the ways to stay: a new employer files a non-frivolous petition for you, you file to change to another status (for example a dependent status on a spouse's visa), you file to adjust status, or you apply for a compelling-circumstances work permit where eligible. If none of these is in motion when the period ends, the expected path is departure.

Students on OPT follow different rules. During post-completion OPT, 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(E) allows no more than 90 days of unemployment in total, or 150 days across OPT and a 24-month STEM extension. The extra period an F-1 student has after finishing study and training, to prepare to leave or to seek another lawful status, was 60 days for years. A Department of Homeland Security rule that took effect on September 15, 2026 (91 FR 44976) replaced it: 8 CFR 214.2(f)(5)(v) now allows 30 days from the program end date, or from the end of the approved post-completion OPT or STEM OPT authorization, and that period is to be shown on the student's I-94 record. Because the change is so recent, confirm with your school's designated school official how it applies to you.

Why the reserve has to be larger on a visa

A citizen who loses a job can take six months to find the right next one. On a work visa the search has to produce a new petition inside a short window, and if it does not, the household may have to move countries. That changes what the emergency fund is for. It has to cover three things, not one:

• Living costs while you search, with no unemployment income you can count on. Eligibility for state unemployment benefits depends on state rules and on being authorized to work, which you may not be during the grace period.
• Health insurance, which usually ends with the job or at the end of that month.
• The cost of leaving, if it comes to that: flights for the household, breaking a lease, shipping or selling belongings, and the first months of setting up elsewhere.

Common guidance for a two-income citizen household is three to six months of essential spending. For a single-income household whose stay depends on that income, six months is a floor rather than a target, and nine to twelve months is reasonable when there are children, a spouse without separate work authorization, or a long move at stake.

A household that spends $6,000 a month on essentials and holds $20,000 in cash is covered for 3.3 months. A six-month reserve is $36,000, so the gap is $16,000.

At nine months, which also covers a move if the search fails, the target rises to $54,000 and the gap to $34,000. The H-1B layoff runway calculator runs the same arithmetic against the grace-period end date, so you can see whether your cash outlasts the clock.

Count only what you can reach in days: checking, savings and money-market funds. A brokerage account can be sold within days but may be down when you need it. Retirement accounts are a poor reserve on a visa, for reasons chapter 5 explains: an early withdrawal is taxed and, before 59½, carries an additional 10% tax.

Health insurance between jobs

Two routes usually exist. COBRA lets you keep the employer's plan for up to 18 months after a job ends, at the full cost of the plan (the part you paid and the part the employer paid) plus up to 2% for administration. You have 60 days to elect it, and coverage is retroactive to the day it ended, which means you can sometimes wait to see whether you need it. The Health Insurance Marketplace treats losing job-based coverage as a reason to enroll outside the usual season, within 60 days of the loss; lawfully present immigrants, including people in work-visa status, can generally buy Marketplace plans.

COBRA is often the costly surprise. Your payslip showed only your share; COBRA bills the whole premium.

At $750 a month, a year of COBRA costs $9,000. Ask HR for the full monthly COBRA rate for your plan now, while you are employed, and put that figure, not your current deduction, into your essentials.

Money decisions to make before a layoff, not after

Most of the damage in a layoff comes from decisions made in the first week under pressure. A few choices made calmly in advance remove most of it.

• Know your dates. Your I-94 end date, your petition validity dates, and whether you have used a grace period on this approval. Keep copies of your petition approval, recent pay stubs and your employment letter where you can reach them without company systems.
• Keep the reserve in your own name and in cash. Do not lend it, invest it, or tie it up in a deposit on a home while your status depends on one employer.
• Understand your equity and bonuses. Unvested stock units and unpaid bonuses usually stop on the last day. Vested stock you hold is yours, but selling in a hurry may mean selling low.
• Leave the 401(k) alone in the first weeks. Cashing it out to fund the search turns a temporary problem into a permanent loss. If you end up leaving the country, chapter 5 covers the better options, and none of them has to be decided during the grace period.
• Keep paying your US credit cards and loans on time. A credit history is hard to rebuild if you come back on a new visa, and creditors can still collect after you leave.
• Agree, as a household, on the date you will decide. Pick a day, a few weeks before the grace period ends, when you will judge the search and either commit to the move or to a change of status. Book nothing irreversible before then, but price the move so the decision is quick.