| Date | 9 Apr 2026 |
|---|
Design houses that have not yet filed to join the approved integrated-circuit designer list keep authorized status, and the foundry presumption pathway that depends on it, for roughly eight more months.
IN BRIEF: In a final rule effective April 7, 2026, the Bureau of Industry and Security extended to December 31, 2026 the date in Note 1 to ECCN 3A090.a that triggers authorized integrated-circuit designer status and the deadline to apply to become an approved IC designer, Federal Register document 2026-06851.
RECORD:
Date: April 9, 2026 (published); effective April 7, 2026
Beat: Chip-War Control Ledger; Chips & Semiconductors
Jurisdiction: United States
Entity: Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce
Instrument / cite: Final rule, 15 CFR Part 774; Docket No. 260406-0093; RIN 0694-AJ98; document 2026-06851; 91 FR 17851–17852; amends Note 1 to ECCN 3A090.a, paragraphs a.(2) and (3)
Source type: Federal Register final rule
Confidence: confirmed
Record ID: N/A
Source: Federal Register
The Bureau of Industry and Security has given design houses about eight more months before authorized integrated-circuit designer status turns on a filed application. A final rule effective April 7, 2026 replaces April 13, 2026 with December 31, 2026 wherever that date appears in Note 1 to Export Control Classification Number 3A090.a. Applications to become an approved IC designer must be received by December 31, 2026. After that date, an applicant may be treated as an authorized IC designer for 180 days.
The rule is narrow. It does not rewrite the license presumption, add or drop a control, or name any company. It moves one date inside an existing note. BIS states the change in a single sentence of rationale: “This change will allow entities additional time to apply to be approved IC designers and allows BIS additional time to process these applications.” Julia A. Khersonsky, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Trade, signed the rule. The public contact is Carlos Monroy, 202-482-3246, Carlos.Monroy@bis.doc.gov or rpd2@bis.doc.gov.
The date sits inside a framework BIS built in an interim final rule published January 16, 2025, cited as 90 FR 5298 and labeled the FDD IFR. That rule, as this notice describes it, added presumptions for “front-end fabricators” and “OSAT” companies that seek to export, reexport, or transfer (in-country) certain “applicable advanced logic integrated circuits” under ECCN 3A090.a. The cross-references in this rule are § 742.6(a)(6)(iii)(A) and Note 1 to 3A090.a. The presumption is overcome via Note 1 to 3A090.a. The FDD IFR, BIS writes, provided three ways to overcome it: approved IC designers, approved “OSAT” companies, or identification of authorized IC designers under criteria in Note 1 to 3A090.a. Listing is not automatic. “To be listed, entities must submit requests to BIS and be approved through the End-user Review Committee (ERC).”
The operative amendment is mechanical. In supplement no. 1 to part 774, in ECCN 3A090, BIS amends Note 1 to 3A090.a in paragraphs a.(2) and (3) by removing “April 13, 2026” wherever it occurs and adding “December 31, 2026” in its place. Authority for part 774 is unchanged and continues to rest on 50 U.S.C. 4801–4852 and the other statutes and Executive Order 13026 cited in the rule. The dates block is more specific than the summary. The effective date of this rule is April 7, 2026. The extended date to apply to become an approved IC designer is December 31, 2026, “after which time, applicants may be considered authorized IC designers for 180 days.”
That 180-day clause is the operational hinge for a design house that files late. Authorized status after the new deadline is time-limited and tied to the application, not to approval. The rule does not say the End-user Review Committee will finish a review inside those 180 days. It says only that the extension gives entities more time to apply and gives BIS more time to process applications. Approval remains an ERC decision. Approved status and authorized status are not the same thing in the text BIS uses here.
BIS paired the extension with a burden estimate, and the estimate is the closest figure the rule offers for expected volume. Under Office of Management and Budget Control Number 0694-0088, Simple Network Application Process and Multipurpose Application Form, BIS estimates a net increase of 75 advisory opinions and 38 burden hours. Under OMB Control Number 0694-0137, License Exceptions and Exclusions, BIS estimates an increase of 20 approved IC designers and 385 burden hours. In the Automated Export System paragraph, printed as OMB Control number 0607-0152 after the collections list had named 0694-0152 for that program, BIS expects an increase of 100 submissions and 5 burden hours. Each increase, BIS says, falls within existing burden estimates. Changes tied to OMB Control Number 0694-0096, the five-year records retention period, are not expected to change burden hours. The rule is not significant under Executive Order 12866, and BIS states that Executive Order 14192 therefore does not apply.
Procedurally, the extension arrived as a final rule with no comment period. BIS invokes section 1762 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, codified at 50 U.S.C. 4821(a), which the rule says permits these changes without prior notice and comment. The same section is cited for an exemption from the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553) requirements for notice of proposed rulemaking, public participation, and delay in effective date. That is why the rule could take effect on April 7, 2026, two days before publication in the Federal Register on April 9, 2026. No regulatory flexibility analysis was prepared. The legal basis BIS recites for the substance is ECRA as included in the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019, signed August 13, 2018, and codified as amended at 50 U.S.C. 4801–4852. Section 1753 (50 U.S.C. 4812) and section 1754(a)(1)–(16) (50 U.S.C. 4813(a)(1)–(16)) are the provisions named for control lists, license requirements, and notice to the public of regulatory changes.
For a founder selling advanced logic design, or an investor underwriting a foundry relationship that depends on ECCN 3A090.a, the document does one thing and declines to do several others. It keeps the authorized-designer route open, on the prior criteria in Note 1, through December 31, 2026, and it tells applicants that a filing on or after that date supports authorized status for 180 days only. It does not publish a list, name an approved designer, or alter the three pathways the FDD IFR used to overcome the front-end fabricator and OSAT presumption. The processing relief BIS claims is time, not a decision standard.
WHY IT MATTERS: The commercial window is the gap between authorized status, which this rule extends, and approved status, which still requires an End-user Review Committee listing. A design house that treats December 31, 2026 as a distant filing date is betting that a later application, and a 180-day authorized period the rule itself caps, will be enough for the foundry pathway in Note 1 to ECCN 3A090.a. BIS has said it needs the extra months to process applications. It has not said those applications will be granted.