September 2026 Immigration Bulletin: RFE Denials, Public Charge, Visa Bans, and Asylum Fees

Index

• USCIS Can Deny a Case Without a Request for Evidence
• Public Charge Standard Changes on September 18
• Federal Court Vacates the 75-Country Immigrant Visa Ban
• Asylum Fee Payment Window Reopens for Applicants Who Missed a Deadline
• USCIS Can Now Require Online Filing
• Family Categories Advance Before the Fiscal Year Ends
• DHS Proposes a $103,265 Fee for H-1B Cap Petitions
• Popular Articles
• Client Successes

September 2026 brings several important immigration updates for applicants with cases pending before USCIS, adjustment of status applicants, asylum seekers, immigrant visa applicants abroad, and employers planning for the next H-1B cap season. This September 2026 immigration bulletin covers the new USCIS policy allowing denials without a Request for Evidence, the public charge guidance taking effect September 18, the court decision vacating the 75-country immigrant visa ban, the reopened annual asylum fee payment window, the new mandatory electronic filing authority, the September Visa Bulletin, and the proposed $103,265 H-1B cap fee.

The most significant development this month is USCIS Policy Alert PA-2026-05, issued on August 5, 2026. Under that guidance, USCIS officers may deny a benefit request that lacks required initial evidence, or that otherwise fails to establish eligibility, without first issuing a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny. The policy took effect immediately and reaches cases that were already pending on that date, which means the strength of the original filing now carries more weight than it did before.

Several deadlines fall within the next few weeks. The public charge rescission takes effect on September 18, 2026, along with a revised Form I-485. Public comments on the proposed H-1B cap fee close on September 24, 2026. Fiscal year 2026 ends on September 30, 2026, and the Department of State has warned that EB-1 for India and EB-2 may retrogress or become unavailable before that date.

Read our September Immigration Bulletin to learn how these updates may affect pending applications, adjustment of status filings, asylum cases, immigrant visa processing abroad, employment-based petitions, and federal litigation options in the coming months.

USCIS Can Deny a Case Without a Request for Evidence

On August 5, 2026, USCIS changed what happens when a filing is incomplete. Until now, if something was missing, an officer would usually send a Request for Evidence or a Notice of Intent to Deny and give you a chance to fix it. Under Policy Alert PA-2026-05, the officer can deny the case instead. The change took effect the same day and reaches cases that were already pending, not only new ones. Requests for Evidence still exist, but the response windows tightened: twelve weeks is now a ceiling rather than a guarantee, and the extra fourteen days once given for notices mailed abroad is gone.

USCIS: Read the USCIS announcement on reinforcing evidence standards

Public Charge Standard Changes on September 18

Public charge is the rule that can make someone inadmissible if the government concludes they are likely to depend on public benefits. The 2022 regulation, which limited officers to considering cash assistance for income maintenance and long-term institutionalization, is being rescinded. Our August immigration bulletin covered that final rule when it was published. On August 18, 2026, USCIS issued Policy Alert PA-2026-09, the guidance that replaces it. Both take effect on September 18, 2026. From that date, officers weigh the totality of a person’s circumstances again, including age, health, family status, financial resources, and education, and a wider range of means-tested benefits can enter the analysis.

USCIS: Read the USCIS guidance on public charge inadmissibility determinations

Federal Court Vacates the 75-Country Immigrant Visa Ban

For seven months, applicants from 75 countries were refused immigrant visas for a single reason: their nationality. On August 21, 2026, a federal court in New York ended that policy. In Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. v. Rubio, No. 1:26-cv-00858, the court held that the State Department had exceeded the Secretary of State’s authority and violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s prohibition on discrimination by nationality in the issuance of immigrant visas. The court vacated the policy and set aside refusals that had rested on it alone.

Court documents: Read the filings and decision in CLINIC v. Rubio

Asylum Fee Payment Window Reopens for Applicants Who Missed a Deadline

Many people with a pending Form I-589 logged in to pay the annual asylum fee and were told the payment period had expired, often without ever having received a notice. On August 13, 2026, the government reopened those windows for a portion of applicants. The reason was a lawsuit. In Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS, No. 1:26-cv-13038, an order issued on August 5, 2026 bars USCIS from rejecting a pending asylum application, cancelling asylum-based work authorization, or beginning removal proceedings solely because the fee went unpaid.

USCIS: Read the USCIS annual asylum fee guidance on the Form I-589 page

USCIS Can Now Require Online Filing

On August 11, 2026, a DHS interim final rule gave USCIS the authority to require online filing. No form became electronic-only that day, and paper filing continues for every form right now. Before USCIS can close paper for a particular form, that form must have been available online for at least 180 days, and the agency must post notice at least 60 days in advance naming the last date paper will be accepted. All 22 forms currently offered for e-filing already meet the 180-day condition, so an announcement could come at any time. Comments on the rule are open through October 13, 2026.

Federal Register: Read the DHS interim final rule on mandatory electronic filing

Family Categories Advance Before the Fiscal Year Ends

The September 2026 Visa Bulletin brought the largest family-sponsored movement of the year. On the Final Action Dates chart, F3 jumped roughly 29 months to October 22, 2014, F4 moved forward more than two years, F2B advanced about 20 months, F1 gained more than 13 months, and F2A advanced one month to August 22, 2026 for all countries other than Mexico. Employment-based categories were nearly frozen. The only movement was EB-4 and Certain Religious Workers, up two months to December 15, 2022, while EB-2 India and EB-5 Unreserved India remain unavailable.

Department of State: Read the September 2026 Visa Bulletin

DHS Proposes a $103,265 Fee for H-1B Cap Petitions

On August 25, 2026, DHS proposed a $103,265 fee on every H-1B cap-subject petition, including petitions filed under the advanced degree exemption. It would be charged at the time of filing, on top of every fee already required, and structured as a separate charge rather than an increase to the Form I-129 fee. Cap-exempt petitions, such as those filed by universities and qualifying nonprofit or governmental research organizations, would not be covered. DHS expects roughly 85,000 cap-subject petitions a year, which would raise approximately $8.8 billion annually.

Federal Register: Read the DHS proposed rule on a fee for certain H-1B petitions

Popular Articles

• September 2026 Visa Bulletin: F-3 Final Action Date Moved 29 Months
• After a USCIS Employment-Based Denial: Motions, Appeals, Refiling, and Federal Court
• New Office L-1A Visa: Your First 12 Months and the Evidence USCIS Expects
• How to Get Strong EB-2 NIW Recommendation Letters
• Paid for I-140 Premium Processing but Still No Decision? Know Your Options

Client Successes

Asylum Approved 89 Days After a Four-Year Wait

A client in Virginia filed Form I-589, and USCIS receipted the application on May 20, 2022. The case was assigned to the Arlington Asylum Office. Four years passed with no interview scheduled and no movement of any kind on the file.

We filed a mandamus lawsuit on May 6, 2026, once the application had been pending four years and one day. The suit did not ask the court to grant asylum. It asked the court to compel a decision on an application the agency had left unadjudicated well past any reasonable adjudication period.

The asylum interview was held on July 24, seventy-nine days after filing. The decision followed ten days later, and the application for asylum and withholding of removal was approved on August 3, 2026. A four-year wait ended in eighty-nine days, interview included, and the case resolved without a hearing. A long affirmative asylum delay with no interview scheduled is one of the clearer fact patterns for federal court review.

A Physician’s Work Permit Approved One Month After the Lawsuit

A physician living in Pennsylvania held H-4 status and was eligible to work through a spouse’s H-1B visa. The Form I-765 application for a C26 employment authorization document was filed in September 2025. Nine months passed with no decision.

The client tried every route available. USCIS was contacted repeatedly, and congressional offices were asked to help, but the case was never expedited. The delay forced a pause in the residency program that physicians must complete, and the position in that program was terminated.

With no other option left, we filed a mandamus lawsuit in federal court and served the complaint on the defendant agencies. USCIS decided the case within one month of service, and the work permit was approved without a hearing. When a delay is actively destroying something that cannot be rebuilt later, such as a training position, how quickly the suit is filed can matter as much as the underlying record.

A Marriage-Based Green Card Approved Exactly One Month After Filing

A client filed Form I-485 through a U.S. citizen spouse, and USCIS receipted the application at the National Benefits Center on August 23, 2024. The interview was held and completed. Even so, no decision followed for months, and the case simply kept waiting.

We filed a mandamus lawsuit in federal court. The application was approved on July 31, 2026, exactly one month after the filing, in the IR6 category for the spouse of a U.S. citizen. From receipt to approval, the case had run 707 days.

In the client’s words: “We had already been through the marriage-based green card interview, but no decision came for months. Then we filed suit with Arif Gozel, and exactly one month later my green card was approved.” A completed interview followed by a long silence is among the strongest records to bring before a federal court, because it shows the agency already had what it needed to decide.

Released Seventy-Eight Minutes After a Habeas Petition Was Filed

On August 21, a client with a pending asylum case was stopped at a New York airport before a domestic flight. He had entered the United States on a visa and had broken no law. He never boarded. He was taken into custody at the gate instead.

The habeas corpus petition was filed at 5:38 that evening. The court ordered release at 6:52, seventy-eight minutes later, with release to occur within twenty-four hours. No hearing was ever held. The filing itself did the work.

Orders this fast are rare, and no one can promise this outcome. Habeas runs on a separate track from immigration court: an immigration judge decides whether a person should be released on bond, while a federal district judge decides whether the detention is lawful at all. That separation is one reason habeas can move quickly. Anyone with a pending asylum case should weigh the risk of domestic air travel, carry the receipt notice and work permit, give family members the A-number, and identify a lawyer they can reach the same day.

Twenty-One Days in ICE Detention, Then a $2,500 Bond

A client from Azerbaijan arrived in June 2023 with his wife and young son, presenting at a port of entry on a CBP One appointment. The family was paroled into the country after processing, and the asylum claim, based on political persecution in Azerbaijan, is still pending. On July 31, 2026, ICE detained him in Pennsylvania and moved him to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. The case was treated as mandatory detention.

The family reached our office on August 3. On August 6 we filed a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which puts the lawfulness of a person’s detention before a federal judge. His wife and young son remained in Pennsylvania throughout.

On August 21, 2026, the Cleveland Immigration Court granted the custody redetermination request and ordered release under a $2,500 bond with discretionary DHS safeguards, twenty-one days after the arrest. An immigration judge weighs flight risk and danger to the community, and the statutory floor for an immigration bond is $1,500, so the amount set here sat close to that floor. Family and community ties, a stable address and work history, and a pending immigration application all bear on that assessment.

Filing standards, agency guidance, and consular practice all shifted in August, and several of the changes in this month’s immigration bulletin carry hard dates. If you have an application pending with USCIS that could now be denied without a Request for Evidence, an adjustment of status case you could file before September 18, an immigrant visa case that was suspended under the 75-country policy, an unpaid annual asylum fee, an H-1B cap plan for the next season, or a family member in ICE custody, reviewing your position now may help you avoid a denial, a missed deadline, or a retrogressed priority date.

You can contact our office through our short form to discuss your immigration matter and next steps.