An effective date is not a publication date

The facts

1. 01A final rule published in the Federal Register carries a publication date and, separately, an effective date. Its requirements apply from the effective date.
2. 02Under the Administrative Procedure Act a substantive rule generally cannot take effect less than 30 days after it is published. The exceptions include rules that grant an exemption or relieve a restriction, and cases where the agency finds and states good cause.
3. 03Some rules add a compliance date as well — a later date by which the people the rule covers must be in compliance.
4. 04A document can appear on the Federal Register's public inspection list a day or more before it is published. Public inspection is not publication, and it is not effect.
5. 05ImmigrationClock records the publication date and the effective date as two separate fields and only states an effective date the document itself gives.