- USCIS reversed a 2023 policy that allowed some green card applicants to use the next business day when an age-based deadline fell on a weekend or holiday
- The change, effective October 23, 2026, most directly affects Special Immigrant Juvenile applicants and children approaching age 21 in family or employment-based green card cases
- Immigration attorneys warned families in backlogged green card categories to calculate age-out dates well in advance and not assume a weekend birthday extends their filing window
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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that green card applicants whose eligibility depends on being below a certain age must now submit their petitions before their actual birthday, even when that date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or federal holiday.
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The shift took effect on October 23, 2026, following the publication of Policy Alert PA-2026-15 on September 23, 2026, titled "Definition of Day for Purposes of Filing Deadlines."
The alert reverses a 2023 policy that had briefly extended age-based filing deadlines to the next business day when a birthday landed on a non-working day.
Who the New Rule Affects
The applicants most immediately affected are those seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) classification, who must generally file Form I-360 before turning 21.
Under the restored approach, if an applicant's 21st birthday falls on a weekend, the petition must reach USCIS before that weekend date, not the following Monday.
The rule also applies to children in family-sponsored or employment-based green card cases where the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) calculation determines whether a child is still eligible before ageing out of a category.
Immigration attorneys have flagged this as a particularly pressing concern for H-1B holders with H-4 dependent children whose CSPA age is nearing 21 and who are caught in lengthy backlogs.
"USCIS does not apply the regulatory definition of day for purposes of other deadlines that are not computed in a period of days, but rather by a substantive eligibility requirement, such as a person's birthday," the policy alert states.
What Deadlines Still Allow Extensions
The next-business-day rule has not been abolished entirely.
For paper filings where a deadline is expressed as a fixed number of days, such as responses to a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny, USCIS will still accept the filing on the next business day if the final day falls on a weekend or federal holiday.
Online filings, however, carry no such flexibility. USCIS treats electronically submitted applications as received at the moment of submission, regardless of the day or time.
A saved draft in a USCIS online account does not count as a completed filing.
The guidance also has implications for H-1B workers. An I-94 expiry date is not a deadline counted in days, meaning workers cannot assume that an expiry falling on a weekend automatically shifts their obligation to file an extension to the following Monday.
USCIS said the 2023 guidance had incorrectly extended the regulatory definition of "day" to deadlines never intended to be calculated in days.
The agency pointed to the US Supreme Court's 2025 ruling in Monsalvo Velazquez v. Bondi as part of the legal basis for restoring the previous interpretation.
Attorneys advising affected families recommend identifying the specific type of deadline in each case and confirming the exact filing method with a qualified immigration lawyer without delay.
Source: TUKO.co.ke