New student admissions get end dates Tuesday
Starting Tuesday, students, exchange visitors, scholars and foreign journalists entering the United States will get a date by which they must leave or seek more time. Until now, people in the F, J and I classifications were generally admitted for “duration of status,” meaning that their I-94s did not carry an end date. For students, that usually lasted as long as they remained enrolled and followed the rules. Under the new rule, admission will typically last for the program period shown on the I-20 or DS-2019, up to four years. People already here with duration of status do not automatically receive a new end date, but a trip abroad or an extension application can put them into the new system. Federal Register, MIT, University of Colorado Boulder
For students in long programs, the four-year limit will mean another application and another decision. A student who needs more time to finish a program, start a new one or complete practical training will have to ask USCIS for an extension or leave and seek a new admission on return. New F students will also have 30 days, not 60, to leave after finishing. The American Physical Society notes that a physics Ph.D. takes 6.2 years on average. GBH News reports that colleges fear the new clock will make it harder to finish research or change programs. At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, KRGV found students already weighing what the limit could mean for medical school and other long plans.
Tuesday also brings a hard form swap. USCIS will reject an old I-539, used to extend or change temporary status, or an old I-765, used to apply for a work permit, if it is filed online or postmarked on or after Sept. 15. The new 09/15/26 editions are mandatory. There is no grace period. USCIS I-539, USCIS I-765
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A broader public-charge test starts Thursday
Public charge is one part of deciding whether a covered applicant can get an immigrant visa or a green card. The question is forward-looking: Is this person likely to depend mainly on public help in the future? Until now, officers generally did not use non-cash benefits to answer that question. Starting Thursday, they can. Medicaid, food assistance and housing aid can become part of the balancing act, along with the applicant’s age, health, family situation, money, education and job skills. Refugees, asylees, TPS applicants and several other groups remain exempt. Federal Register, USCIS
The State Department has resumed immigrant-visa processing in Hungary and Poland, but a wider pause on immigrant-visa appointments remains in place elsewhere while consular officers train on the new public-charge standard. The disruption affects people applying abroad for permanent residence. It does not cover nonimmigrant-visa appointments for visitors, students or temporary workers. Reuters
USCIS changes its green-card form Thursday, too. Anyone applying from inside the United States must use the new 09/18/26 Form I-485. USCIS will reject an older version filed online or postmarked on or after Sept. 18. USCIS
Salvadoran TPS did not end. The uncertainty did not end either.
An estimated 170,000 Salvadorans with TPS can still live and work in the United States, for now. When the Sept. 9 decision deadline passed, DHS said people already covered would keep their protection and work authorization until it makes another announcement. That is not a settled extension or a final decision about the designation’s future; the agency still has not said whether it will terminate, extend or otherwise reshape the program. NPR’s reporting puts the uncertainty in human terms: many of these families have built homes, jobs and children’s lives in the United States over 25 years of TPS. NPR, The Washington Post
The paperwork is part of the limbo. USCIS’s Sept. 3 materials still told affected workers that an older A12 or C19 work permit, together with the agency’s extension notice, could prove continued work authorization only through Sept. 9. After that date passed, USCIS said beneficiaries still retain protection and work authorization, but it has not yet published a new EAD end date, a Federal Register notice, or specific I-9 and E-Verify instructions for employers. That left workers and payroll offices trying to reconcile an expired-looking document with the agency’s later assurance. USCIS, WR Immigration, La Nación
ICE arrests rise sharply in El Paso, Texas
ICE apprehended nearly 3,500 people in the El Paso region through August 5, nearly matching the total for all of 2025. More than half came in June and July, El Paso Matters reported from ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. The measure is arrests, not removals or a count of people currently held in custody, but it captures how quickly enforcement has intensified locally. El Paso Matters
Upcoming
The next four weeks.
- Sept. 15, 2026
USCIS will accept only the 09/15/26 editions of Form I-539, used for status extensions and changes, and Form I-765, the work-permit application. Older editions will be rejected at intake; the filing date is the online-submission date or, for paper filings, the postmark date.
International students (F-1), exchange visitors (J) and foreign media staff (I) can currently stay as long as they keep their program going — "duration of status." This final rule replaces that with a fixed end date, and they would have to apply for an extension of stay to remain longer. It is a major rule under congressional review, so DHS may publish a different effective date.
- Sept. 18, 2026
People applying for a green card from inside the US face a broader public charge test — whether an officer thinks they might come to depend on government benefits — after DHS scraps the narrower 2022 rule. USCIS is issuing a new edition of the green card application (Form I-485) and will stop accepting older editions from that date.
- Sept. 25, 2026
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which houses unaccompanied immigrant children, wants to keep using its mental health assessment form and to merge its two illness-reporting forms (active TB and non-TB) into a single Onsite Health Intervention Form. Comments are open until the deadline.
- Sept. 28, 2026
Immigration judges would be able to fine people who defy their authority in court (contempt), under a proposed rule setting out who can be penalised, how much, and how to appeal — aimed mainly at lawyers and others appearing in deportation cases. Comments can be filed until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on September 28, 2026.
- Oct. 1, 2026
A new fiscal year's supply of employment-based green card numbers becomes available on October 1, so the October 2026 Visa Bulletin — the State Department chart that sets who can file or be approved based on their place in line (priority date) — may show forward movement in backlogged categories such as EB-2 India.
- Oct. 5, 2026
The federal office that houses immigrant children who arrive without a parent or guardian, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), wants to revise the forms its inspectors use to check whether shelters are meeting licensing rules and other legal requirements. Anyone can comment until October 5, 2026.
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Around the system
The H-2B cap filled up for the first half of the next fiscal year. USCIS said September 4 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject petitions seeking start dates before April 1, 2027; later petitions will be rejected. The regular H-2B program has 33,000 slots for each half of the fiscal year. USCIS
Massachusetts has put its new workplace-notice rule into practice. Employers who receive an ICE request to inspect I-9 records must give affected workers written notice within 48 hours, in their primary language. State guidance also covers schools, health-care sites, police departments and state agencies under the new PROTECT Act. Massachusetts Municipal Association
The Justice Department used its Alien Terrorist Removal Court for the first time. Congress created the five-judge court in 1996 for removal cases involving classified evidence, but no administration had brought it a case. Nazira Haji Zada, a lawful permanent resident in Fort Worth, Texas, agreed to removal to Afghanistan after the government invoked the court; because the case ended by agreement, it did not resolve her lawyers’ challenge to a process in which they could not see the classified evidence. NPR, PBS NewsHour, Justice Department
A federal judge halted construction of a planned ICE facility near Gilroy, California. California and Santa Clara County had challenged the project over environmental review and consultation. The preliminary injunction keeps construction paused while the parties work out the scope of the order. California Attorney General, Mercury News
A lawsuit over Cuban I-220A paperwork cleared an early hurdle in Miami. ICE gives an I-220A to someone it releases from custody under supervision. It can require check-ins, but it is not a visa, legal status or grant of parole. The plaintiffs in Bello-Rubio v. Noem want courts to treat that release paper as parole for the Cuban Adjustment Act, which could open a green-card route for eligible people. The judge only allowed the case to continue; she did not decide that an I-220A is parole or award anyone a green card. Telemundo Atlanta
A separate detention case in Texas raises a hard question about medical force. Univision, citing court documents reported by The Guardian, said a judge extended authorization for ICE to force-feed a Cuban man on hunger strike at the Montgomery Processing Center near Houston, Texas, including possible surgical feeding-tube placement. His identity and much of the case remain sealed. Univision