A User Equipment (UE) category handling method and an apparatus for handling late version UE category attached to an early release version network in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system are provided. A communication method includes transmitting a terminal capability report message including multiple terminal categories, receiving a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message including a terminal category to be used by the terminal according to serving base station of the terminal, and communicating with the network using the terminal category received from the network. The UE category handling method and apparatus of the present invention allows the UE to report a network-adaptive UE category, thereby avoiding soft buffer problem caused by version information mismatch and facilitating communication with the network without malfunctioning.