A Department of Homeland Security regulation, effective August 11, 2026, allows the immigration agency to require that applications be submitted exclusively online. No form is subject to this requirement yet. Anyone who cannot manage online may apply for a waiver using Form I-936; the fee is 25 dollars. Comments may be submitted until October 13.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a regulation that allows the immigration agency to require that applications be filed exclusively online. It went into effect on August 11, 2026, the day of publication, without prior public consultation.
Before anyone panics: today, applications can still be submitted on paper. The regulation does not subject a single form to the requirement. It gives the agency a tool that it will only begin to use.
What exactly has changed
USCIS may henceforth announce that a given form is accepted exclusively in electronic format. It may do so under two conditions. First, the form must have been available for online filing for at least 180 days. Second, the agency must provide advance notice of the change at least sixty days in advance.
And here is something worth knowing: this notice will not appear in the Federal Register nor arrive by mail. USCIS will announce it on its own website. Anyone who does not check uscis.gov might simply not learn about the change.
As of December 16, 2025, twenty-two forms were available electronically, and all of them have met the required 180 days. This means the agency can subject them to the requirement at practically any moment.
Waiver: Form I-936 and 25 dollars
For those who cannot manage the internet, the regulation creates an escape hatch. It is called Form I-936, Request for Waiver of E-Filing Requirement, and filing it costs 25 dollars.
The rules are stricter than one might think.
- A separate application for each form. Anyone wishing to submit two different applications on paper files I-936 twice and pays twice.
- A separate application for each person. Even within a family and even for applications filed together, everyone must have their own approval.
- Approval valid for 30 days. The paper application must reach USCIS within 33 calendar days from the date the approval is issued—three days are added for delivery by mail. Anyone who is late must apply for approval all over again.
Exemption from the 25-dollar fee itself is granted only to a narrow group required by law: applicants for status under the Violence Against Women Act, T and U status, battered spouses, and individuals with TPS status.
What the agency will not consider a reason
The basis for the waiver is “undue hardship.” The Department deliberately did not create a list of qualifying situations—it only announces that it will take into account geographic location, financial situation, and the availability of public technical resources.
It is known, however, what will not suffice. A lack of internet at home in itself is not an argument: one must explain why it is impossible to use a public library, community center, or help from family or friends. Unfamiliarity with the system and the lack of an account on the USCIS portal will generally not suffice either, because—as the department notes—public libraries provide internet access and often run computer training.
The department also announces that waivers are unlikely to be granted to two groups: individuals represented by a lawyer and businesses.
There is another thing that is easy to overlook. An approved waiver does not mean the application will be accepted. The paper application must still meet all requirements, and the agency may reject it for even a single missing required field.
Where this change comes from
The figures with which the department justifies the regulation are telling. In fiscal year 2025, USCIS received over thirteen million applications, of which about 44 percent were electronic. Over one million paper applications were rejected. The agency spent 10,864,781 dollars on postage alone.
The financial incentive did not work. A 50-dollar discount for submitting an application online has been in effect for a long time and, as the department admits, has not significantly increased the number of electronic submissions. Private individuals file online 43 percent of the time, while attorneys and accredited representatives do so less than six percent of the time.
The department itself estimates that 248,905 people will apply for a waiver annually.
What to do now
Nothing sudden. No form is subject to the requirement yet, and the entire mechanism will not start until Form I-936 goes through a separate approval procedure.
However, it is worth doing two things. Anyone planning an application in the coming months should check uscis.gov from time to time—that is where the announcement will appear, rather than in official press. And anyone who believes the new rules will harm them has until October 13, 2026, to submit comments via the regulations.gov portal; the case number is USCIS-2026-0232.
Bartosz Karczmarski
