This was a visa week, not a hiring week. Tomorrow, 15 September 2026, the rule ending "duration of status" for F-1 students takes effect, and no court has stopped it. Four days earlier, DHS formally proposed ending the 60-day grace period H-1B workers get after a layoff — the safety net most international new grads would be relying on two or three years from now.
On the hiring side, the board moved slowly: Scale AI, SpaceX and a Susquehanna Dublin seat were the notable adds. Uber's 3,300-person layoff, announced 2 September, is still the largest tech cut in the rear-view mirror, and early-career engineers were not spared.
Applications that opened or closed
| Company | Role | Region | Status this week | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scale AI | Software Engineer, New Grad | San Francisco | Posted ~5 Sep | Scale AI |
| Amazon | Software Development Engineer, Early Career | Cambridge, MA | Posted ~5 Sep | speedyapply board |
| Susquehanna (SIG) | Site Reliability Engineer Graduate: 2027 | Dublin | Posted ~7 Sep | speedyapply board |
| SpaceX | New Graduate Engineer, Software (Starship) | Starbase, TX | Posted ~9 Sep | speedyapply board |
| SpaceX | New Graduate Engineer, Security Software (Starshield) | Hawthorne, CA | Posted ~12 Sep | speedyapply board |
| Optiver | Career Kickstarter – Trading 2026 | Amsterdam | Closes 20 Sep, 17:00 CEST | Optiver |
Posting dates are estimated from the age column on the speedyapply 2027 new-grad boards, which were last regenerated on 13 September (retrieved 14 September 2026).
The most concrete of these is Scale AI. Its posting asks for a bachelor's degree with a graduation date in Fall 2026 or Spring 2027 and lists a San Francisco base range of $124,000–$162,000 (Scale AI careers, retrieved 14 September 2026). The posting says nothing about visa sponsorship either way, so ask the recruiter before you sink time into the loop.
Susquehanna's Dublin SRE graduate role is worth a look for a different reason: an Irish seat keeps you out of the US H-1B system entirely, which after this week's news is a real consideration rather than a footnote.
Optiver's Amsterdam Career Kickstarter still closes at 17:00 CEST on 20 September, and applicants must already hold the visa or travel authorisation they need to attend when they apply (Optiver careers, retrieved 14 September 2026). The programme runs 30 November to 4 December 2026; if those dates do not work, Optiver says more programmes are expected in spring 2027.
Interview and process changes
No firm published a change to its new-grad interview process this week. The most useful reference remains the UnchartedCareer AI Interview Policy Tracker, last updated 6 August 2026: of 20 companies tracked, 10 ban candidate AI use in interviews (including Anthropic, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft), 4 allow it (including Meta), 4 require it (Canva, Zapier, McKinsey and Coinbase), and Google has no published policy. If you are interviewing at more than one of those this month, check the rule for each loop rather than assuming one standard.
Comp, layoffs, and expansions
Uber announced on 2 September that it is cutting 3,300 jobs, 10% of its workforce. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's memo said the company would shrink its manager count by 20%, halve the number of one- and two-person teams, and remove staff more than seven layers below the CEO; fewer than 1% of staff will be allowed to work remotely (TechCrunch, 2 September 2026). The headline pitch is "flattening management", but the Blind Layoffs thread from the same day had commenters reporting L3 engineers with under two years at the company among those cut, alongside visa holders. Uber's 2027 new-grad SWE req was already marked closed on Applr's New Grad 2027 tracker; do not expect it back this autumn.
The macro picture from the August jobs report, released 4 September, is mixed in a way that matters for tech applicants:
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US payrolls added, August 2026 | +162,000 | Fox Business, 4 Sep 2026 |
| US unemployment rate | 4.1% | Fox Business, 4 Sep 2026 |
| Information sector jobs | −23,000 | Fox Business, 4 Sep 2026 |
| of which computing infrastructure providers | −8,000 | Fox Business, 4 Sep 2026 |
| Recent college graduate unemployment, Q2 2026 | about 5.6% | New York Fed |
| Recent college graduate underemployment, Q2 2026 | 42% | New York Fed |
The overall economy added jobs; the sector most new grads are applying into shed them. That gap is why the new-grad boards look thin relative to the headline numbers.
Visa and policy
Duration of status ends for F-1 students on 15 September
DHS's final rule, published 17 July 2026, replaces open-ended "D/S" admission with a fixed period. From 15 September, F-1 students are admitted for the length of the programme on their I-20, capped at four years, plus 30 days to arrive and 30 days to depart. The grace period after finishing a programme, OPT or STEM OPT falls from 60 days to 30. Students who need more time, including to start OPT, must file Form I-539 for an extension of stay with USCIS or leave and re-enter to get a new admission period (DHS Study in the States, retrieved 14 September 2026).
If you are already in the US under D/S on 15 September, you can stay through your programme end date or OPT without filing, but not past 14 November 2030 (DHS Study in the States). Clinch Law's 4 September explainer flags the catch: that transition protection is tied to being admitted under D/S, and travelling abroad and being readmitted can put you on the new fixed-period system.
The legal challenge has not produced a ruling. NAFSA, the Presidents' Alliance, the American Federation of Teachers and the UAW sued on 18 August in the District of Massachusetts (Fragomen, 18 August 2026); 20 state attorneys general filed a supporting amicus brief on 25 August; and Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV heard the preliminary injunction motion on 3 September. As of NAFSA's 9 September update, no decision had been announced.
DHS proposes ending the 60-day grace period
On 11 September, DHS published a proposed rule that would eliminate the discretionary 60-day grace period for E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN workers and their dependents. Under the proposal, a worker would fail to maintain status the day after employment ends, and DHS acknowledges affected people could be issued Notices to Appear. Comments are due 10 November 2026 (Fragomen, 10 September 2026).
DHS's own numbers frame the argument: 65,752 principal beneficiaries a year experienced an end of employment, and only 5.77% filed a new I-129 petition within 60 days (Reddy Neumann Brown, 10 September 2026). TIME put the population differently: roughly 4,000 workers a year use the grace period to file new petitions, 99% of them H-1B holders, out of about 730,000 H-1B holders living in the US (TIME, 11 September 2026). The proposal does not touch F-1, OPT, STEM OPT or cap-gap. It matters to you later, when a layoff in your first H-1B year would no longer come with two months to find a new sponsor.
The reaction was loud. A Blind Work Visa thread on the proposal had passed 375 comments within about three days (retrieved 14 September 2026); some commenters pointed out the grace period only dates from 2017, while others focused on how impractical an immediate departure is with a lease and a car. On the same forum on 2 September, an F-1 STEM OPT holder described being terminated by Microsoft weeks before their H-1B was due to start, with replies debating whether a new employer could file without the person going back into the lottery. That is exactly the scenario these rules make harder, and exactly the question to put to an immigration attorney rather than a forum.
The H-1B fee dates to watch
- 20 September: Proclamation 10973, the basis for the court-blocked $100,000 fee, expires unless extended (Buchalter, 13 August 2026). We found no published extension as of 14 September.
- 24 September: comments close on DHS's proposed $103,265 fee for every cap-subject H-1B petition, including advanced-degree cases. Cap-exempt employers such as universities and nonprofit research organisations are outside it, as are extensions, amendments and changes of employer for existing H-1B holders (Ogletree, 25 August 2026).
- Already live since 9 September: the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee ($4,000 for H-1B, $4,500 for L-1) now applies to extension petitions too, for employers with at least 50 US staff where more than half hold H-1B or L-1 status (Global Immigration Blog, 14 August 2026). This mostly hits outsourcing-heavy employers, not the product companies and trading firms most readers here target.
UK
The Home Office's Statement of Changes HC 584, published 3 September, raises the Student route maintenance requirement from 30 November 2026 to match home-student maintenance loans for 2026/27. The explanatory memorandum lists no change to the Graduate route and no Skilled Worker salary threshold change (GOV.UK, 3 September 2026). The date that still matters for UK master's graduates is 31 December 2026, the last day to apply for a two-year Graduate visa before it drops to 18 months, as covered in last week's roundup.
What to do this week
1. If you are on an F-1 visa, check your I-94 and I-20 end date today, and talk to your DSO before booking any international travel. Re-entry after 15 September is where the new fixed-period rules bite. Our OPT and STEM OPT timeline guide explains how the work-authorisation clock interacts with a job search.
2. Plan around a 30-day window, not 60. If you finish a degree or OPT this academic year, the departure grace period is now half what your seniors had.
3. If you have a view on the $103,265 fee, file a comment before 24 September. On the grace-period rule you have until 10 November.
4. Apply to Scale AI, Amazon's Cambridge early-career role and the SIG Dublin seat this week if they fit. Scale AI's posting lists no closing date, which in practice means seats go to whoever arrives first, so there is no reason to wait for a career fair. For the Amazon loop, Applr's Amazon SDE I mock interview drills the online assessment, coding rounds and Leadership Principles behavioural questions.
5. Run your resume through the free ATS checker before the next batch of applications. It takes a minute and catches formatting problems that get rolling-review applications binned early.
Sources
- DHS Study in the States, "Final Rule: Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure Quick Facts", retrieved 14 September 2026
- NAFSA, "Legal Challenge to the Final Rule Ending Duration of Status (D/S)", updated 9 September 2026
- Fragomen, "Lawsuit Seeks to Enjoin Implementation of Final Rule Eliminating Duration of Status Admissions", 18 August 2026
- Clinch Law, "End of Duration of Status for F and J Visa Holders Takes Effect September 15", 4 September 2026
- Fragomen, "DHS Proposes Eliminating Discretionary 60-Day Nonimmigrant Grace Period", 10 September 2026
- Reddy Neumann Brown PC, "DHS Proposes to Eliminate the 60-Day Grace Period for H-1B, L-1, O-1, E, and TN Workers", 10 September 2026
- TIME, "Trump Administration Proposes Cutting Grace Period for H-1B and Other Visas", 11 September 2026
- Blind, "Eliminating the Discretionary 60-day Grace Period" (Work Visa board), retrieved 14 September 2026
- Blind, "F1 STEM OPT and laid off from Microsoft", 2 September 2026
- Ogletree, "DHS Proposes New $103,265 Fee for Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions", 25 August 2026
- Buchalter, "The $100,000 H-1B Fee and the September 20 Cliff", 13 August 2026
- Global Immigration Blog, "DHS Expands Biometric Fee Requirement to Certain H-1B + L-1 Extensions Starting Sept. 2026", 14 August 2026
- TechCrunch, "Uber is laying off 10% of staff, or 3,300 people", 2 September 2026
- Blind, "Uber 10% layoff" (Layoffs board), 2 September 2026
- Fox Business, "August jobs report: US adds 162,000 positions, unemployment at 4.1%", 4 September 2026
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates", 2026:Q2 data, retrieved September 2026
- speedyapply, 2027 SWE College Jobs new-grad boards, retrieved 14 September 2026
- Scale AI careers, "Software Engineer - New Grad", retrieved 14 September 2026
- Optiver careers, "Career Kickstarter – Trading 2026", retrieved 14 September 2026
- GOV.UK, "Explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes in Immigration Rules: HC 584", 3 September 2026
- UnchartedCareer, "AI Interview Policy Tracker", updated 6 August 2026
Frequently asked questions
- What changes for F-1 students on September 15, 2026?
- DHS's final rule ending duration of status takes effect. New F-1 admissions are for the length of the program on the I-20, capped at four years, plus 30 days to arrive and 30 days to depart, and the grace period after finishing a program or OPT drops from 60 to 30 days (DHS Study in the States, retrieved 14 September 2026). Students already in the US under D/S on the effective date can stay through their program end date or OPT, but not past 14 November 2030.
- Did a court block the duration of status rule?
- Not as of NAFSA's 9 September 2026 update. The coalition led by NAFSA and the Presidents' Alliance sued on 18 August in the District of Massachusetts, and Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV heard the preliminary injunction motion on 3 September, but no ruling had been announced (NAFSA, updated 9 September 2026). Unless a court acts, 15 September is the operative date.
- Is the H-1B 60-day grace period gone?
- No. DHS published a proposed rule on 11 September 2026 that would end it for H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, E and TN workers and their families, with comments due 10 November 2026 (Fragomen, 10 September 2026). Until a final rule is issued and takes effect, the current 60-day grace period still applies.
- Does the grace period proposal affect OPT?
- The proposal does not address F-1, OPT, STEM OPT or cap-gap (Reddy Neumann Brown, 10 September 2026). It matters for new grads later: once you move from OPT to H-1B, a layoff under the proposed rule would mean falling out of status the day after your job ends.
- When does the $103,265 H-1B fee comment period close?
- 24 September 2026. The DHS proposal, published in the Federal Register on 25 August, would charge $103,265 on every cap-subject H-1B petition, including advanced-degree cases, while exempting universities and nonprofit or government research organisations (Ogletree, 25 August 2026). Separately, Proclamation 10973 behind the court-blocked $100,000 fee expires on 20 September unless extended (Buchalter, 13 August 2026).
- Which new grad roles were posted this week?
- The speedyapply 2027 new-grad boards (retrieved 14 September 2026) showed Scale AI's Software Engineer, New Grad in San Francisco, an Amazon Software Development Engineer, Early Career role in Cambridge, Massachusetts, SpaceX new graduate software roles in Texas and California, and a Susquehanna Site Reliability Engineer Graduate 2027 seat in Dublin. Scale AI's posting lists a $124,000-$162,000 base range for Fall 2026 or Spring 2027 graduates.