I-485 has a new edition. I-765 does not. Which one to file now
Last updated 2026-09-22 · General information, not legal advice
Three of the most commonly stalled USCIS forms changed in the same fortnight, and not in the same direction. Form I-485 has a mandatory new edition as of 18 September 2026. Forms I-765 and I-539 were due to get one on 15 September and did not, because a court stopped the rule behind it. Filing the wrong edition gets the packet rejected, and a rejected filing keeps no receipt date. The receipt date is the clock a delay case runs on, so check the form page before you post.
What each form takes today
As of 22 September 2026, this is what the USCIS form pages say:
- I-485, Adjustment of Status: new edition, 09/18/26. If it is postmarked or submitted electronically on or after 18 September 2026, USCIS takes only the 09/18/26 edition and rejects both the 01/20/25 and the 09/04/26 editions. The 09/04/26 edition was itself new at the start of the month and was superseded a fortnight later. (uscis.gov/i-485)
- I-765, Employment Authorization: no change, still 08/21/25. USCIS had announced a 09/15/26 edition. Its form page now says it is not accepting the 09/15/26 edition and is continuing with 08/21/25. (uscis.gov/i-765)
- I-539, Extend or Change Nonimmigrant Status: no change, still 08/28/24. Same reason as the I-765. (uscis.gov/i-539)
Two unrelated policies produced the split. The I-485 was reissued to carry the new public charge framework. The I-765 and I-539 were to be reissued for a different rule, and that rule is enjoined.
Why the I-765 change was announced and then undone
On 14 August 2026 USCIS announced 09/15/26 editions of Forms I-539 and I-765 and said there would be no grace period, on the stated ground that the revised editions were necessary to apply a new final rule.
That rule is the Department of Homeland Security final rule published in the Federal Register on 17 July 2026, which ends duration of status for F, J and I nonimmigrants and substitutes a fixed period of admission with an extension-of-stay procedure. (Federal Register, document 2026-14439)
It was to take effect on 15 September. On 14 September 2026 the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts preliminarily enjoined the Department from taking further action to implement it, and the effective date is postponed pending the court's resolution of the case. The USCIS I-539 page says so on its face. (uscis.gov/i-539) With the rule on hold, the forms built to administer it have nothing to do, so both reverted.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association identifies the case as Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration v. Department of Homeland Security, in the District of Massachusetts. (aila.org)
The 14 August announcement now carries an archived-content notice, but it is still online and still turns up in search, and so do the articles written from it in early September. Go by the form page on the day you file, not by an article, this one included.
What this means for a delay case
A rejected filing starts the wait over. The rule is in 8 C.F.R. § 103.2(a)(7):
- § 103.2(a)(7)(i): the receipt date is the date the request is actually received at the location designated for filing it, on paper or electronically.
- § 103.2(a)(7)(ii): a benefit request which is rejected will not retain a filing date, and a rejection cannot be appealed.
(8 C.F.R. § 103.2, full text at govinfo.gov)
A mandamus complaint pleads the receipt date in its opening paragraphs, because the court measures the wait from that date. Post on 19 September, get the rejection back in mid-October, refile at the end of October (illustration): in law the wait began at the end of October. The six weeks in between do not count as your wait, and they do not count as the agency's delay.
This matters in two places.
The case-inquiry line moves away from you. USCIS publishes a date for each form; your receipt date has to fall before it before you can submit a case inquiry at all. From the figures USCIS published on 17 September 2026, as captured here on 21 September 2026: employment-based I-485 at field offices requires a receipt date before 3 March 2025, and an F-1 student's I-765 under (c)(3) requires one before 19 March 2026. A later receipt date can drop you back outside the line, so you lose the administrative step before you even reach the question of court. The full tables are on our processing-time page.
A court counts only the time the agency has held the case. The unreasonable-delay analysis looks at what the agency did with the case once it had it. Time the file spent with you, in the post, or inside a rejection envelope is not agency conduct, and putting it in a complaint does not make it so.
The rejection rule itself is old and has not changed. What changed is that September 2026 produced three form changes pulling in different directions, so more people than usual will be caught by it.
What to do
- Check the form page on the day you post it, not the day you downloaded the PDF. The I-485 turned over twice in a fortnight; an edition that was correct when you downloaded it may not be accepted when it arrives.
- Read the edition date at the foot of every page. USCIS prints it at the bottom of the form and the instructions so that you can check it.
- Do not mix editions. On a paper filing, USCIS rejects a form with missing pages or with pages from a different edition; the I-765 page says so. Re-download the whole set before printing rather than reusing pages from an older file.
- If you have already been rejected, start counting again. Take the date on the new receipt notice as day one and work out where that puts you on the processing-time tables. The earlier attempt does not count.
- Re-run the threshold question afterwards. The first of the seven signs a case is worth filing is being past the published processing time, and a new receipt date changes that arithmetic. For the I-485 specifically, see how long is too long on an I-485.
If you are not sure where your case now sits, the 60-second check works it out from your receipt date.