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Three DHS proposals that would reshape life on work and student visas close for public comment between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13. The comment counts so far bear little relation to the dollar stakes DHS itself has estimated.
DHS comment deadlines for three proposed immigration rules fall within five days of each other next week, and after that the public record each rule will be judged on is essentially closed. The proposals would charge schools $70,000 for each F-1 student’s first period of Optional Practical Training, end the 60-day grace period for laid-off H-1B, L-1, O-1, TN and E workers, and stop USCIS from deferring to its own earlier approvals when employers file for extensions. None of the three is final.
The window closes in the week after the Nov. 3 midterms, on rules that DHS’s own documents describe very differently in scale.
| Proposed rule | Published | Comments due | Comments received | DHS’s own estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optional Practical Training fees (ICEB-2026-0100) | Oct. 8 | Nov. 9 | 4,844 | $12.4 billion a year in fees (primary estimate) |
| Ending the 60-day grace period (USCIS-2026-0364) | Sept. 11 | Nov. 10 | 27,123 | Costs and benefits not estimated |
| Removing deference to prior approvals (USCIS-2026-0529) | Oct. 14 | Nov. 13 | 416 | $133,987 a year; about 6,044 more RFEs |
Comment counts that do not track the money
Of the roughly 32,400 comments filed on the three dockets as of Nov. 2, about 84 percent went to the grace period proposal, about 15 percent to the OPT fee and about 1 percent to the deference rule, based on the regulations.gov counts. That ordering bears little relation to the dollar figures in the proposals themselves.
The OPT fee is the only one of the three that DHS classifies as economically significant. Its analysis projects $8.4 billion to $16.5 billion in fees a year from 2,478 certified schools, which would pay $70,000 per student for initial OPT and $30,000 for any later OPT period before recommending a student in SEVIS. Schools may pass the charge to students or employers, and DHS says it “cannot confidently predict” how much participation would fall. It lands as SEVIS counts of Indian students are already falling.
The grace period rule, by contrast, carries no monetized cost or benefit in DHS’s accounting statement. It would delete 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2), the provision that lets a worker whose job ends stay up to 60 days to find a new sponsor or change status. Its comment count likely reflects how many workers can picture themselves in that spot after a layoff, as Microsoft’s buyout offer showed, and a tech industry group has put the price DHS left blank at $263 million a year.
The deference proposal has drawn the fewest comments and carries the smallest price tag, $133,987 a year in DHS’s estimate, yet it reaches about 208,429 extension petitions a year across nearly every Form I-129 category, from H-1B and L-1 to O-1, P, R-1 and TN. Its cost figure counts only paperwork for roughly 6,044 extra requests for evidence. It does not try to price what happens to a worker whose extension is denied after years of approvals on the same facts, a risk laid out when USCIS proposed the rule.
Why the comment record matters after the deadline
Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an agency must consider significant comments and respond to them when it issues a final rule. It does not tally votes. Form letters can carry less weight than one comment with data the agency lacked. That makes the deference docket the most open of the three: with only 416 submissions, a single detailed comment from an employer with real extension and RFE numbers is more likely to shape the response DHS must write.
The record also matters in court: judges reviewing a final rule ask whether the agency reasonably answered the problems raised in comments, and arguments never raised are harder to press later.
None of the three proposals changes anything today. A worker laid off this week still has the grace period, OPT carries no new fee, and USCIS deference remains in place until final rules are published with an effective date. Next week instead fixes the evidence DHS must answer before finishing any of them, a step that often takes months for rules of this scope. Employers already absorbing the new L-1 extension fee will be watching the deference rule in particular, because it would apply to the same extension filings.
Dates to watch
- Nov. 9: comments due on the OPT fee proposal; a separate Paperwork Reduction Act comment window on its information collection runs to Dec. 7.
- Nov. 10: comments due on ending the 60-day grace period, before midnight Eastern time.
- Nov. 13: comments due on removing deference to prior approvals, before midnight Eastern time.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- Federal Register: Optional Practical Training Fees, proposed rule, 91 FR 64566 (Oct. 8, 2026)
- Federal Register: Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period, proposed rule, 91 FR 57807 (Sept. 11, 2026)
- Federal Register: Removing Deference to Prior USCIS Determinations of Eligibility, proposed rule, 91 FR 65119 (Oct. 14, 2026)
- Regulations.gov dockets ICEB-2026-0100, USCIS-2026-0364 and USCIS-2026-0529 (comment counts as of Nov. 2, 2026)
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