When Are Fall Semester Grades Usually Issued? I am a middle manager at the US subsidiary of a large multi-national corporation, and a member of my staff has been accepted to grad school in her field of expertise. Our corporate policy is that we pay a set maximum amount of the tuition (something like $5000) per year. That reimbursement is not issued until grades have been posted, and payment applies to the year the grades are issued, rather than the year the classes took place. The payment cutoff for a calendar year is 15 December. The university in question issues grades for the fall semester well after this cutoff, and to me this raises questions about the logic behind our corporate policy.

My question is this: how realistic is it for a US-based graduate student to expect to receive their grades for the fall semester before 15 December?
Fifteen December is, indeed, a bit early. Final exams often come about then and professors have a week or so to submit grades. After that it goes pretty quickly with modern automation. But 31 December would be more realistic. 

But even then, if you request grades formally, it may take a bit longer for them to be sent and received. 

There are still some US schools in which the "Fall" term doesn't actually end until about mid January.