On Sept. 23, 2026, USCIS issued Policy Alert PA-2026-15, revising Volume 1, Part B, Chapter 6, Section E of the Policy Manual in its entirety, effective Oct. 23, 2026. It rescinds a 2023 policy (PA-2023-10, issued March 29, 2023) that had extended a regulatory computation rule for counting days — 8 CFR 1.2, which pushes a deadline landing on a weekend or federal holiday to the next business day — to substantive-eligibility deadlines tied to a person's birthday, most notably the requirement that a Special Immigrant Juvenile petition be filed before the requestor turns 21.
Going forward, USCIS says it will apply that weekend/holiday extension only to deadlines actually expressed as a number of days — for example, a response to a Notice of Intent to Deny, or an appeal on Form I-290B — and not to an age or birthday-based eligibility cutoff. USCIS points to the Supreme Court's 2025 decision in Monsalvo Velazquez v. Bondi, which concerned a deadline measured in days — not an age cutoff — as support for treating the two differently.
USCIS says the new guidance applies to paper-based filings it receives on or after Oct. 23, 2026. If you file online, do not read that as a reprieve: USCIS treats an electronic filing as received the moment you submit it, so the weekend and holiday extension has never applied to online filings at all. Either way, after Oct. 23 there is no extra day past a birthday. The guidance also does not apply to benefits governed by different regulations, such as asylum applications.
If you or a family member has a Special Immigrant Juvenile case, or any other filing where eligibility depends on being under a specific age on a specific day, do not assume a weekend or holiday buys you an extra day — file before the birthday. Talk to us now if a deadline like this is approaching.