Guides · sources checked 2026-10-05
12 guides, every claim cited.
Plain answers to the questions that come up when a form or an upload has to be right: which edition, which signature, which size. Each guide quotes the agency or provider and links the page it came from.
Forms and editions
FORMS AND EDITIONS · IRS W-9Is There a 2026 W-9? How to Tell Which IRS Form Revision Is CurrentNo. The W-9 is not a yearly form, so a new tax year does not bring a new one. Here is how to read the revision yourself, in under a minute, on the IRS’s own pages.FORMS AND EDITIONS · IRS W-9Can You Sign a W-9 Electronically? What the IRS Requester Instructions SayUsually the answer depends on the person asking for it. Here is what the IRS instructions actually say, and what that means for the payee and for the requester.FORMS AND EDITIONS · USCISDoes USCIS Accept Electronic Signatures? The Policy Manual Rule, ExplainedOnly when you file through a USCIS online account. For paper filings and PDF uploads, USCIS wants a real handwritten signature, though a scan or photocopy of one is accepted.FORMS AND EDITIONS · USCISWhy USCIS Rejects Forms: Editions, Signatures and Blank FieldsA rejection sends the whole package back before anyone reads your case. USCIS publishes most of the reasons. Here they are in its own words, with a check for each.FORM TECHNOLOGY · XFAXFA Forms: Why "Please Wait…" Appears and How to Fill the Form AnywayThat message means your PDF viewer opened a form built with XFA, Adobe’s older form technology, and could not run it. Here is what is going on and the reliable ways around it.
Size and requirements
GET IT ACCEPTED · USCIS ONLINEHow to Prepare Evidence for USCIS Online Filing (12 MB, PDF or JPG)USCIS publishes four rules for evidence you upload in an online account. Here they are verbatim, and a way to meet all four without sending your documents to anyone else.SIZE AND REQUIREMENTSWhy Is My PDF So Large? Images, Fonts and Duplicates, MeasuredAlmost always it is images, and usually scans made at a higher setting than the page needs. We measured four agency PDFs and a court’s scanning test to show where bytes go.SIZE AND REQUIREMENTSHow to Compress a PDF to an Exact Size Without Wrecking ItPortals reject a file one byte over the line, and over-compressing makes it unreadable. Here is how to aim for the number on purpose: the units, the order of the dials, and the fallback.SIZE AND REQUIREMENTS · AI ASSISTANTSPDF Upload Limits for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and NotebookLMEach assistant publishes its own rules, and they change often. Here are the ones we could read on the provider’s page today, quoted, and the one we could not.
Privacy and signatures
PRIVACY AND SECURITYHow Browser-Based PDF Tools Work, and How to Verify Nothing Is Uploaded“Your files never leave your device” is a claim any site can make. Here is what it means technically, and three ways to test it on any PDF site, ours included, without trusting the site.PRIVACY AND SECURITY · REDACTIONHow to Redact a PDF Properly, and How to Check That You DidA black rectangle over text hides it on screen and leaves it in the file. Here is what a court tells e-filers not to do, what proper redaction removes, and a two-minute check.SIGNATURESElectronic vs Digital Signatures: ESIGN, UETA and CertificatesThe two terms get used as if they were the same. One is a legal category defined in federal law; the other is a cryptographic technique. Here is the difference, from the statute and NIST.
Guides explain what agencies and providers publish. They are not tax or legal advice, and pdfnex is not affiliated with the IRS, USCIS or any government agency. Bylines show “[Author name]” until a named author is assigned.