Five people who navigated the 60-day clock.

Priya was given 30-day notice with the option of three months' severance. She used the first 48 hours to confirm her last-day-worked date in writing (April 10) and pull every immigration document into a single folder.

Her offer originally accelerated 0% of unvested RSUs (~$80K). After running the severance calculator with her HR contact's email open in another tab, she sent a one-paragraph ask citing internal precedent for partial acceleration. They came back with 75% acceleration — $60K recovered. She also asked to convert one month of severance to unpaid leave-of-absence to preserve H-1B status; HR agreed because the cost was the same to them.

She filtered her job search to employers with documented H-1B sponsorship post-September 2025 fee proclamation. Three offers in 14 days; she accepted the strongest one. New employer's counsel filed I-129 with premium processing; receipt notice landed day 16. Started the new job day 17.

Rajiv had a mature I-140 but the post-September 2025 sponsor pool had shrunk. After 35 days of applications and only one viable offer (which then fell through at offer-letter stage), he pivoted strategy.

His attorney walked him through the Compelling Circumstances EAD pathway — 1-year work authorization for I-140 holders facing compelling circumstances. The argument: layoff + multi-decade EB-2 backlog + significant financial loss to family in India who depended on remittances. Filed I-765 with category code C(35) on day 47.

EAD approved 4 months later. He took a contract role at a startup that wouldn't sponsor H-1B but happily hired on EAD. Renewed the EAD a year later. Now planning to use the breathing room to pursue EB-2 NIW self-petition.

Anika's first instinct was to find another sponsor. Two weeks of applications produced no firm offers. With her husband's H-1B in good standing (he had I-140 approved 2 years), her cleanest fallback was I-539 to H-4 + I-765 for H-4 EAD.

She filed both forms day 21 with premium processing on the I-539 ($2,075). I-539 approved day 36; H-4 EAD received in day 78 (mailed). Took a 6-week unpaid gap, then started a new role at a startup that doesn't sponsor H-1B but hires on EAD freely.

Plans to revisit H-1B in 18 months once her network has rebuilt at the new company; her husband's I-140 priority date is hers via spousal portability.

Diego's calculus was different — Mexican citizen with no I-140, modest savings, and a tight job market in his specialty. He decided early that departing on his own terms was better than burning his savings on a job search that might fail.

On day 14 he committed to departure. Used /severance-calculator and /departure-cost — the calculators surfaced $34K of total cost, of which $11K was avoidable. Rolled his 401(k) to an IRA (avoided $30K NRA tax hit), negotiated 50% RSU acceleration, sold his car early (caught a soft market but better than rushed sale at week 8), shipped a 20ft container to Mexico City.

Spent 11 months in Mexico City working remotely as a contractor for a US startup willing to hire him as a 1099. Built the case for a TN visa (he qualified under USMCA as 'Computer Systems Analyst'). Re-entered the US 11 months later on TN; now back to a US W-2 role.

Samira's situation was unique — she was cap-exempt at a university and the September 2025 $100K fee proclamation didn't apply to her transfer either. Her concern was finding a private-sector employer who understood her cap-exempt portability.

She filtered her applications to AI labs that publicly continued sponsoring H-1B (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Allen Institute). Two offers within 18 days. The Allen Institute offer was the cleanest — they're cap-exempt themselves, so no fee questions at all.

Filed I-129 with the new cap-exempt employer day 22. Started work day 23 (portability under INA §214(n)). Total grace-period stress: ~3 weeks.