The Department of Homeland Security published a rule, today, August 11, 2026 that gives USCIS the legal authority to mandate e-filing for any form that has been available online for at least 180 days. Before a mandate begins, the agency must post a notice on its website with a clear start date and provide a 60-day grace period for compliance.
The definition of "e-filing" includes both submitting a guided online form or uploading a completed PDF through an approved account. A new waiver process is also available for those facing undue hardship, though it comes with its own fee requirements.
While this doesn't change anything immediately, it removed the regulatory hurdles for USCIS to mandate online filing in the future. It also outlines the specific steps the agency must take before making e-filing mandatory for any particular form.
22 forms already meet the 180-day deadline, so USCIS can mandate e-filing for them at any time. These forms include;
And 14 others: AR-11, G-28, G-325R, G-639, I-90, I-589, I-821, I-821D, I-907, I-912, N-336, N-565, N-600, N-600K
Significantly, USCIS can roll out mandates for specific visa classifications even if the entire form isn't mandated yet.
It is likely that USCIS will implement these mandate by visa classification, starting with H-1B. O-1 and L-1 petitioners should monitor these schedules closely, as they may not follow the same timeline as H-1Bs.
In FY 2025, 43% of individual petitioners filed online, but fewer than 6% of attorneys did the same. Since immigration attorneys handle nearly a third of all requests, the shift is clearly aimed at them. The government expects to save hundreds of millions in processing costs once the transition is complete.
For high-volume evidence practices (like those filing EB-1A or NIW petitions), this transition will be significant. Moving from paper to digital means dealing with file-size limits, indexing exhibits, and new automated rejection criteria, challenges that don't exist in the current paper-based system.
There is currently a 60-day window that is open on the rule. USCIS is expecting feedback on the waiver process and which forms are best suited for mandatory e-filing. They've also noted that this mandate "is not necessarily irreversible" but a drop in filings can cause the agency to identify where further actions are needed.
Moving an O-1A or EB-1A record into an online filing process does not make the record stronger. Petitions that hold up are those where the evidence is organized, indexed, and complete. More importantly, your record must adequately meet the required criteria when reviewed as a whole,” says Camila Façanha, Head of Legal at Beyond Border.
Petitioners may want to talk to their counsel about setting up online workflows now. It's better to adjust to the new system while paper filing is still an option than waiting for a 60-day clock to start. Nonetheless, it is still unclear how USCIS will treat paper filings mailed before the mandate but received after it.
