July 23 2004

The DHS has extended the grace period that follows a student's authorized stay, if the student is the beneficiary of an H-1B petition that allows the student to begin working October 1, 2004.

Typically, foreign students (in F or J visa status) receive a 30 or 60 day grace period at the end of their education program. If the student has an offer of employment through an employer willing to sponsor the student on an H-1B visa, the employer submits an H-1B petition to change the student's status to H-1B. Usually, the student can go directly from student status to H-1B status without a gap in their immigration status.

This year, however, the H-1B cap was reached before the end of the fiscal year (September 30, 2004). The effect of this is that new H-1B visas cannot be approved to begin until the new fiscal year of October 1, 2004. If students have to wait until October 1, 2004 to begin their H-1B status, they would have a "gap" in their immigration status between the time their grace period ended until their H-1B status began.

To resolve this "gap" situation, the DHS has extended the grace period for students if the prospective employer has timely filed an H-1B petition before July 30, 2004 with a requested start date of October 1, 2004.