Form I-539

Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status is one of the forms issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. It is used by people currently in the United States in a non-immigrant status to change the classification for their status and/or extend their stay with their current status. Both the current status and the status to which the transition is being sought must be non-immigrant visa statuses.

The corresponding form used for Adjustment of Status to that of a Lawful Permanent Resident is Form I-485. However, whereas Form I-485 is always needed when adjusting status within the United States to that of Lawful Permanent Resident from a non-immigrant status, Form I-539 is only needed for some kinds of transitions or extensions of stay.

For the following current statuses, any extension of stay beyond that specified on the Form I-94 requires the filing of Form I-539:

For the following categories, it is not possible to change status while in the United States, or extend stay beyond that specified in Form I-94:

The most numerically significant of these ineligible categories is entrants under the Visa Waiver Program. They cannot use Form I-539 except in exceptional circumstances. Thus, even people from VWP-eligible countries who believe they might need to extend their stay or change their status should get B visas.

For the following categories, there are restrictions concerning one's ability to request a change in one's nonimmigrant status:

For students on F visa (in post-secondary institutions) and their dependents, if the Form I-94 (or any update to it from a previously filed Form I-539) specifies "Duration of Status" (abbreviated "D/S") as the expiration date, then one simply needs to extend the underlying authorization.

Explicitly, an updated Form I-20 needs to be issued to the student by the international office at his or her institution, with a new expiration date. No Form I-539 need be filed. Note that this works only if the new Form I-20 is issued prior to the expiration date of the old Form I-20. Even if transferring to a different educational institution, there is no need to file Form I-539. In general, the responsibility of keeping the student's information up-to-date lies with the Designated School Official at the institution, who acts as the intermediary between the student and the government bureaucracy. All reporting requirements imposed on students are to the DSO rather than directly to USCIS or DHS.

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