USCIS Will Accept Only the New Edition of Form I-765 and Form I-539 Starting September 15, and Form I-485 Starting September 18
On September 15 and 18, 2026, USCIS is switching three forms to new editions: Form I-765 (Application for Employment Authorization), Form I-539 (Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status), and Form I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status). This time, USCIS has stated there will be no grace period allowing applicants to transition smoothly as in the past. If you mail the old edition after the deadline, your entire package will simply be sent back. Separate rules affecting international students, together with another set of review rules, each prompted these form changes, but the people affected are not limited to international students. Regardless of the specific visa or status involved, if you are currently preparing, or planning to soon file, any one of these three forms, a single date can send your entire filing back.
First, Here's What Changes and When
"There is no grace period for the new edition, because the new edition is necessary to implement the final rule."
This is the exact language USCIS used in announcing the replacement of the employment authorization and change-of-status forms. The notice announcing the replacement of the green card application form contains the same no-grace-period principle.
Form I-765 and Form I-539 will have new editions dated September 15, 2026. The editions currently posted on the USCIS website were issued last year and the year before, respectively. If your form is postmarked or filed online on or after September 15, USCIS will not accept anything other than the new edition. Conversely, if it is postmarked or filed before September 15, the old edition will still be processed without issue. Form I-485 changes editions the same way three days later, on September 18. The edition in current use was issued early last year, and starting with anything postmarked or filed on or after September 18, only the new edition will be accepted. USCIS has posted the new editions of both forms in advance in each announcement. The reasons behind the form changes differ, but the rejection standard itself carries no exception based on whether the applicant is an international student. Everyone who files Form I-765 must use the new edition starting September 15 — whether you are applying for employment authorization alongside a pending green card application so you can keep working while it is under review, applying for employment authorization in your spouse's name, or renewing employment authorization you already hold to extend its validity. The same applies to Form I-539. Whether you are extending a tourist visa or changing to a different status, the purpose of your application makes no difference — only the form's edition date matters.
Why This Isn't Just a Routine Form Update
"A rejected application does not receive a filing date."
This is what USCIS regulations provide. The same rule applies fully in a case like this one, where the form's edition date is the issue.
Form changes themselves are not rare, but this one calls for particular caution because what you lose upon rejection is not a single sheet of paper — it is your filing date. Once an application is rejected, it is treated as though it had never been filed at all. Several issues can turn on that one filing date: the age calculation that determines whether a child's paperwork was filed before they aged out, whether an extension request is deemed to have been filed before your current status expires, and where you land on the waiting list for your green card priority date. If the filing date shifts for any one of these reasons, the outcome can change. Because what is at stake differs from person to person, exactly where the filing date matters depends on the individual case. On top of that, there is no way to appeal or ask USCIS to reconsider a rejection. You can file again, but you cannot recover the original filing date. In the meantime, you are left to absorb whatever follows — your status lapsing, or falling behind in some other process's order. This is also where the risk of mixing form editions across pages within the same application comes in. A common mistake is carrying over only the signed signature page from an old file, or reusing previously prepared documents so that a few pages end up on the old edition while the rest are current. That is why, this time, making sure every page is on the same edition matters just as much as filling out the content correctly. If you are preparing Form I-485 and Form I-765 together in particular, keep in mind that the two forms change editions on different dates. Even if you mail them together on the same day, the cutoff determining which one must already be on the new edition and which one can still be on the old edition falls three days apart. If you plan to file these together, mark that three-day gap in advance so it doesn't cause confusion.
Employment Authorization No Longer Extends Automatically
"The validity of an employment authorization document that has expired or is about to expire is not automatically extended merely by filing a renewal application."
This is what USCIS regulations state.
There is one more reason this round of form changes is especially burdensome. In the past, simply filing an employment-authorization renewal on time would automatically extend the card's validity by up to 540 days. That meant you could keep working even if the renewal took a while to process. But starting October 30, 2025, that automatic extension was eliminated. If you already received an automatic extension on your card before that date, your card keeps that extension. The problem lies with renewal applications filed from that point on, including now — those no longer receive an automatic extension. Except for certain cases extended by statute or separate announcement, your authorization to work ends on the expiration date printed on the card, no matter how long the renewal review takes. The date on the card itself does not move, even if your renewal application is already sitting in USCIS's queue. In that situation, if your Form I-765 gets rejected once over a form-edition problem, it is not simply a matter of losing a few days to refile. A rejected application loses its filing date, so you are effectively starting over, while your card's expiration date keeps approaching regardless. That creates a real gap during which you cannot work for however long it takes to refile, and during that gap there is no option other than to wait for the new card to arrive. If you are preparing a renewal application, you should first work out whether the timing of this form change overlaps with your card's expiration date. The closer your expiration date falls to September 15, and the larger the gap a single rejection would create, the more you need to build in extra time and move quickly.
What to Check If You Are Preparing Your Application Now
"Among the people who bring their paperwork into our office, it is still uncommon for someone to have already checked the form's edition date."
This is something we notice often when reviewing filings.
If you have an application in progress right now, there are several things to check. First, if you plan to file by mail, decide whether your mailing date will fall before or after September 15 (for Form I-765 and Form I-539) or September 18 (for Form I-485). If you can mail it beforehand, finish it on the current edition as soon as possible; if you will be mailing it afterward, you must obtain and use the new edition. USCIS has already posted the new editions, so you can download them ahead of the deadline. But keep in mind that downloading the new edition early and then rushing to mail it before the cutoff date will get it rejected for the opposite reason — for being the new edition too soon. Even a form you download from the website today can already count as the old edition by the time it is postmarked, if that postmark date falls on or after September 15 or 18. If your application type allows online filing through your USCIS account, the form-edition problem is largely reduced, because filling it out and submitting it directly on screen means it is filed on whatever edition USCIS is using at that moment. That said, some online filings still involve uploading a document you prepared ahead of time as a file, and there the risk remains that you upload the old edition without realizing it. Filing online does not exempt you from checking the edition date. Not everyone is eligible to file online, so first check whether your type of application is eligible for online filing at all. Avoid pulling just the signature page from an old file and mixing it in with the rest of your current pages. The edition date is printed at the bottom of the form, so the surest approach is to check it directly against the latest edition date posted on the USCIS website before you mail anything. If you are filing on paper, take one final look before mailing to confirm that the edition date and page number printed at the bottom of every page match, and that no pages are missing. If you have already filed, it is worth double-checking the filing date on your receipt notice and keeping an eye on your mail in case a rejection notice arrives.
Closing
To sum up, there are three points. First, mark your calendar: Form I-765 and Form I-539 change editions as of September 15, and Form I-485 as of September 18, with no grace period. If you are preparing one of these forms right now, first determine which cutoff date applies to you. Second, anything you file on or after that date must be on the new edition. Even a form you have already downloaded may have effectively become the old edition by the time it is postmarked, depending on your mailing date, so check the latest edition date on the USCIS website one more time right before you mail it, and match it against the date printed at the bottom of your form. Third, before mailing a printed application, take one more look to confirm that the edition date and page number match across every page and that no pages are missing — and check in particular, as a final step, that you have not simply carried over the signature page from an old file.
Disclaimer: This column is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice for any specific case. For matters concerning your individual immigration situation, please consult an immigration attorney.
Law Office of Attorney Jin D. Cho
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