New Form I-765 and I-539 Editions Start September 15, 2026: No Grace Period, and Older Editions Will Be Rejected

What Changed, and When

In an alert titled “USCIS to Publish New Editions of Form I-539 and Form I-765; Older Editions Will Be Rejected Starting Sept. 15”, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that on September 15, 2026 it will publish revised editions of two of its most heavily used forms:

• Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization — new edition dated 09/15/26, replacing the 08/21/25 edition.
• Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status — new edition dated 09/15/26, replacing the 08/28/24 edition.

According to the agency, there is no grace period for either form. That phrase has a specific meaning here. When USCIS revises a form, it often keeps accepting the prior edition for a stated transition window. This time the agency said it will not, because the revised editions are what allow it to apply an underlying regulation.

USCIS also released preview copies of the new forms and instructions ahead of the date, and stated that the 09/15/26 editions are not to be filed before September 15, 2026. Both points were summarized in an August 17, 2026 government update from the University of Washington’s International Student Services office and in an August 14, 2026 client alert from Erickson Immigration Group.

Which Edition Applies on Which Date

The rule USCIS published turns on a single date and, for mailed filings, on the postmark rather than on the day the envelope arrives. As published by the agency:

USCIS stated it will use the postmark date for applications sent by mail and the electronic submission date for applications filed online to decide which edition was required. An application submitted on or after September 15 on an earlier edition is rejected; an application submitted before September 15 on the new edition is not accepted either.

Who in Texas This Reaches

The reason this change reaches so far past international students is that Form I-765 is not a student form. It is the single application used to request or renew an Employment Authorization Document, and the categories that file it include, among others:

• People with a pending adjustment of status (green card) application who requested interim work authorization.
• Asylum applicants whose applications have been pending long enough to request employment authorization.
• DACA recipients renewing employment authorization.
• People with Temporary Protected Status and others whose work authorization is tied to a status that must be renewed.
• Certain spouses of visa holders, including dependents in categories that permit employment.
• F-1 students requesting Optional Practical Training or a STEM OPT extension, and J-2 dependents requesting employment authorization.

Form I-539 is the companion filing used to extend or change nonimmigrant status, including for dependent family members. Both forms are filed by people living in every part of Texas, not only in the metros with large universities, and the same edition rule applies to a filing mailed from Lubbock, Laredo or Tyler as to one mailed from Houston.

Texas is home to one of the largest immigrant populations of any state, and employment authorization renewals are among the most common immigration filings made here. That is the practical scale of this change: it is a small procedural detail attached to a very large number of applications.

What This Changes Legally

The forms are being revised to implement a regulation, not on their own. USCIS stated the revisions align the two forms with a Department of Homeland Security final rule establishing a fixed time period of admission and an extension-of-stay procedure for nonimmigrant academic students, exchange visitors and representatives of foreign information media. That rule was published at 91 FR 44976 on July 17, 2026 and carries the same September 15, 2026 effective date. We covered the substance of that rule separately in our August 23 post on the end of duration of status for F, J and I nonimmigrants, including the federal lawsuit filed on August 18 that asks a court to block it.

A rejection is procedurally different from a denial. A rejected filing is returned without being adjudicated, which means it was never properly filed. The filing date that a person may have been counting on is not preserved, and the application has to be submitted again on the correct edition. For a renewal, the consequence people most often ask about is the interval between the expiration of the current document and the approval of the new one.

The date on the form matters as much as the date on the calendar. The edition date appears in small print at the bottom corner of each page of a USCIS form. A packet printed, signed and set aside weeks earlier can carry an edition that is correct on the day it was printed and incorrect on the day it is mailed.

The underlying rule is being litigated; the form change is a separate matter. The lawsuit described in our earlier post asks a court to stop the DHS rule. USCIS has not published anything indicating the form-edition transition is paused, and a court ruling on the rule would not automatically be a ruling about the forms. Where a filing decision depends on that distinction, it is a question for a lawyer tracking the docket rather than a general summary.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is a prediction about any individual case, and a general summary is not an answer about anyone’s own filing. What an immigration lawyer can review, on the specific facts, includes:

• Which form and which edition a particular request actually requires, and whether the filing is better made on one side of September 15 or the other for that case.
• How an existing Employment Authorization Document, automatic extension, or receipt notice interacts with a renewal that is being prepared now.
• What a rejection notice means and what can be done next, including how quickly a corrected filing can be resubmitted.
• Whether an F-1 student’s OPT or STEM OPT request is affected by the transition provisions in the underlying DHS rule.
• How a Form I-539 extension request and a Form I-765 employment request fit together when both are needed.
• Employer-side questions, including Form I-9 reverification timing when an employee’s document is close to expiring.

A university international student office or a nonprofit accredited representative is often the first place someone asks, and for document and SEVIS questions that is appropriate. Where an individual’s legal status, a filing strategy, or an employer’s exposure is involved, that is attorney territory. Many people use both.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates here are fixed points rather than warnings. The new editions publish on September 15, 2026. Filings postmarked or e-filed before that date use the current editions; filings postmarked or e-filed on or after it use the 09/15/26 editions. USCIS separately stated that a revised Form I-485 takes effect on September 18, 2026, so three widely used forms change editions inside the same week.

The part of a filing that consumes calendar time is usually not the form itself. It is the supporting evidence — an updated Form I-20, an employer letter, a medical record, a translated document — that has to be requested from someone else. Talking to an immigration lawyer earlier leaves more room to work with than talking to one after a filing has come back. If a lawyer in our network offers an initial consultation, it is free.

Sources

1. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “USCIS to Publish New Editions of Form I-539 and Form I-765; Older Editions Will Be Rejected Starting Sept. 15,” agency alert (primary document).
2. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization (form page and instructions).
3. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status (form page and instructions).
4. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media,” final rule, 91 FR 44976, Federal Register, July 17, 2026.
5. University of Washington International Student Services, “USCIS Announces New Editions of Forms I-539 and I-765,” August 17, 2026.
6. Erickson Immigration Group, “USCIS Releases New Forms I-539 and I-765 to Implement Fixed Admission Period Rule,” August 14, 2026.
7. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, alert on the new edition of Form I-485 effective September 18, 2026.