The Employ American Workers Act was added to the stimulus bill in February by U.S. Senators Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Bernard Sanders, an Independent from Vermont. It prohibits financial institutions that receive federal bailout money from hiring foreign workers if they have recently laid off American workers in similar jobs or plan to do so. Given the mass layoffs at companies across the United States in recent months, some view that provision as an effective ban on hiring employees who require an H-1B visa to work in the United States. The H-1B program allows American companies to hire foreign workers for up to six years in certain high-tech and high-demand occupations. Caught in the crossfire of the new restrictions are dozens of foreign students--many of them completing M.B.A.'s--who have shelled out more than $100,000 for their educations only to see job offers in the United States vanish. Many received the offers last fall and had stopped networking. Complicating the matter and adding to the students' stress levels: The banks still aren't sure exactly how to apply the Employ American provisions because regulations that will spell that out haven't been issued yet. As a result, several banks that have received bailout money are essentially keeping their foreign hires in limbo. Meanwhile, the effective deadline for applying for one of the 65,000 H-1B visas issued each year is fast approaching. Some foreign students who are about to graduate from American colleges worry that those visas will run out before their job offers are confirmed.