If you are graduating this fall and planning to apply for post-completion OPT, the deadline you were told about may no longer be yours. The OPT filing deadline has been 60 days after your program end date for years, and every advising page and orientation slide repeats that number.
It is changing to 30. And unlike most USCIS updates, this one arrives with no transition window, because it lands on the same day USCIS retires the current edition of Form I-765.
What changed in the OPT filing deadline
The 09/15/26 edition of the Form I-765 instructions changes one sentence in the post-completion OPT section, category (c)(3)(B).
The 08/21/25 edition says to file up to 90 days before, but no later than 60 days after, your program end date. The 09/15/26 edition keeps the 90 days and replaces 60 with 30.
The instructions changed because the regulation did. The DHS final rule published July 17, 2026 at 91 FR 44976 amends the regulation itself. Its amendatory instructions direct that in 8 CFR 214.2(f)(11)(i)(B)(2), the number 60 is removed and 30 is put in its place. Because it sits in the regulation, the 30 days are a binding filing deadline, not USCIS guidance you might argue around.
A second change in the same rule is easy to miss and matters just as much. Paragraph (f)(11)(i)(D) gets the same treatment, 60 replaced with 30. That paragraph governs the OPT start date you request on your application. So you can no longer ask for employment to begin more than 30 days after your program ends, even if your filing itself is timely.
The post-completion OPT filing window under both editions of Form I-765, measured against the program end date on your Form I-20.
Two clocks, and now they both run 30 days
Post-completion OPT has never had a single deadline. It has two, and they start on different events.
The first is the one that just changed: your application must be filed no later than 30 days after the program end date on your Form I-20. The second is unchanged. Your DSO enters the OPT recommendation into SEVIS, and you have 30 days from that entry to file. You have to satisfy both, and missing either means a denial.
What is new is how tightly these interact. Under the old rule the SEVIS clock was usually the binding one, and advisors treated it that way. Now the outer deadline is day 30, so a recommendation entered on day 20 leaves you ten days, not thirty. The 09/15/26 instructions spell this out: file within 30 days of the DSO recommendation and no later than 30 days after the program end date.
In practice, the DSO request has to move earlier. If you were planning to sort out OPT in the weeks after graduation, that plan no longer fits inside the window.
Worth knowing: the program end date is the date on your Form I-20, not your graduation ceremony, not the last day of exams, and not the date your degree is conferred. Counting from the wrong anchor is one of the more common reasons OPT applications get denied, and a 30-day window leaves much less room to absorb that mistake.
STEM OPT did not change
The 24-month STEM extension, category (c)(3)(C), keeps its existing timing in the 09/15/26 instructions. You may still file up to 90 days before your current OPT employment authorization expires, and you still have 60 days from the date your DSO enters the STEM recommendation in SEVIS. Both editions say the same thing.
Pre-completion OPT under (c)(3)(A) is also unchanged.
So if you are applying for a STEM OPT extension rather than initial post-completion OPT, the deadline in this article does not reach you. The form edition rule below does. The I-983 training plan and employer E-Verify requirements are unaffected.
The September 15 edition swap makes timing sharper
The deadline change lands together with a new form edition. USCIS is publishing the 09/15/26 edition of Form I-765 on the same date and has said there is no grace period, because the new edition is what lets the agency apply the final rule.
The cutoff runs in both directions. USCIS will accept the 08/21/25 edition only if it is postmarked or electronically submitted before September 15, 2026, and will reject it on or after that date. The 09/15/26 edition is only accepted on or after September 15.
A rejection is not a denial, so USCIS never looks at your case. The packet just comes back, and your 30 days keep running. Send the wrong edition on day 25 and you are unlikely to have time to correct it. The fee is $520 by mail or $470 online per the USCIS fee schedule, and how you pay is its own source of rejections.
The edition rule reaches every I-765 category, not just students. That includes H-4 and J-2 spouses, who are the I-765 filers Immiva supports; Immiva does not prepare OPT or STEM OPT applications, so an F-1 student reading this should work with their DSO rather than with us.
If your program already ended, count your days now
There is an awkward overlap that no advising page has addressed yet.
Say your program end date was August 10, 2026. Under the current rule you have until October 9 to file, but by September 15 you are already past day 30. Neither USCIS nor the rule says which filing deadline that group gets. The preamble does address them on two other points: they keep the remainder of the 60-day departure period counted from the I-20 program end date, and unlawful presence starts accruing on September 15, 2026 unless they have already applied for reinstatement, a change of status, or an OPT or STEM OPT EAD. The alert on the Form I-765 page covers only which edition to use.
Until USCIS says otherwise, take the cautious reading. If you are inside the old 60-day window and past day 30, file before September 15 while the 08/21/25 edition and its 60-day deadline are still in force. Filing first also stops the unlawful presence clock the preamble describes. Talk to your DSO this week rather than next.
If you are already past both windows, the options narrow quickly and are covered separately in our guide to filing after the OPT deadline has passed.
What to do now
Four things, in order.
- Find your program end date on your I-20. Not graduation. Count 30 days forward and write that date down.
- Request the OPT recommendation from your DSO immediately. The SEVIS entry has to happen before you file, and the outer deadline no longer gives you slack.
- Download Form I-765 fresh in the week you file. Do not reuse a saved PDF. Check the edition date at the bottom of the page against your postmark date.
- Confirm your requested start date is within 30 days of your program end. This change has had almost no coverage, and it will produce denials.
One more check if you were admitted for duration of status. F-1 students in D/S and physically present in the United States on September 15, 2026 who file for post-completion OPT or STEM OPT on or before March 18, 2027 do not also have to file a Form I-539 extension of stay. Travel abroad before you file and that exemption is lost, because you return with a fixed admission date on your Form I-94. What else takes effect that day is covered in our briefing on the September 15, 2026 USCIS changes.
The bottom line
The OPT filing deadline is now 30 days after your program end date. It sits in the regulation, not just the instructions, and it takes effect on September 15, 2026 with no transition period. STEM OPT is untouched. The requested start date is capped at the same 30 days, which is the piece most likely to catch people out.
If your program ends this fall, the advice is short. Ask your DSO for the OPT recommendation earlier than you planned, and file earlier than you planned.