U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a new edition of Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, on 9 September 2026, and has now closed the transition window. Starting 9 November 2026, USCIS will accept only the 09/09/26 edition of Form I-129. Any petition using the 02/27/26 edition will be rejected if it is postmarked or submitted electronically on or after that date.
The new edition was published in connection with the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee for H-1B and L-1 Visas final rule, which came into effect on 9 September 2026. On 10 August 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published that final rule amending its regulations on the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee for certain H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrant visas.
Under the new rule, DHS requires certain employers to pay the 9-11 Biometric Fee for all H-1B and L-1 extension petitions, even where the foreign national remains with the same employer — a significant expansion of the previous scope. The fee amounts remain $4,000 for H-1B petitions and $4,500 for L-1 petitions.
A petitioner is a covered employer if it employs 50 or more individuals in the United States and more than 50 per cent of those employees are in H-1B or L-1A or L-1B nonimmigrant status. While updating the form is mandatory for all categories filed on Form I-129, the new additional-fee rules do not affect all employers or all visa types equally.
Employers and practitioners should treat 9 November 2026 as a hard deadline: filings mailed even one day late on the outdated form risk outright rejection, which can be especially costly for time-sensitive matters such as change-of-status requests, extensions nearing expiration, or cap-subject petitions with fixed start dates.
The edition date appears in the lower left corner of each page of the form — failure to use the proper edition will result in USCIS returning a petition. The updated form is available for download directly from uscis.gov.
