News - Academic Personnel & Faculty

ISO Pilot Program to Expand O-1/EB-1B/Conrad Waiver Sponsorship

The Provost and the Vice Provost for Academic Personnel and Faculty (APF) have announced a pilot program to expand UW visa sponsorship of outstanding international faculty. Effective September 1, 2025, the International Scholars Operations (ISO) team will work with the UW Attorney General’s Office and outside immigration counsel to support requests for O-1 (Extraordinary Ability), EB-1B (Outstanding Researcher/Professor), and H-1B Conrad waiver sponsorship for new or ongoing faculty. While some of these cases will be prepared by outside counsel with minimal involvement by ISO, units may still choose to request sponsorship through ISO, as ISO workload allows.

This pilot program reflects long-standing requests from around campus for more support for these visa types. Units should note that they will still be responsible for related fees, and that outside counsel generally bill more for these case types than ISO does. More guidance on these visa types and processes (including how processing through ISO and outside counsel will differ) will be published on the ISO website shortly.

ISO anticipates that this program will significantly alleviate hiring and retention difficulties for outstanding international faculty, and we’re excited to better meet this need. Please send any questions or feedback you have about this pilot program to acadvisa@uw.edu.

Avoiding RPT Roadblocks: Tips to Keep Your Review Process on Track

The technical setup of Interfolio Review, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) cases may seem routine, but small missteps in the foundational template can create major slowdowns once reviews are underway. Administrators play a critical role in ensuring that cases move forward without delays—and that begins with precise template setup on the APF website.

One of the most common—and avoidable—pitfalls is mismanaging placeholder committees. Each foundational template includes placeholders that must be replaced (not just supplemented) with the appropriate school- and department-level committees. It’s essential to use the “Replace” option rather than adding a new committee. Otherwise, the new committee won’t inherit the necessary instructions and requirements—and since committees cannot view each other’s instructions, this creates gaps that can stall a case mid-review.

Resist the urge to tinker. The foundational template reflects all elements required by the Provost’s Office. Renaming steps, deleting instructions, or removing requirements—even with good intentions—can cause significant delays. Once the foundational template has been cloned, the only edits needed are to add any local-level requirements and properly replace placeholder committees.

Naming your templates correctly also matters. Follow this required naming convention:
SCC_Dept_DEP/UNDEP Template
Examples:

Departmentalized units: CAS_ENG_DEP Template
Undepartmentalized units: LAW_UNDEP Template

Let the system do the work. After the candidate is notified that their case is ready, and once they submit their materials, the system will automatically move the case to Step 1. Manually moving the case to Step 1 before this point will lock the candidate out of their section, requiring administrative intervention to unlock it.

External reviewer requests can be sent at any time, but the best practice is to wait until the candidate’s materials have been submitted—this allows you to include relevant documents in the request.

Also important: if a candidate updates their External Reviewer Nominees form or any required form, they must resubmit their Candidate Documents section. This step ensures administrators and committees are reviewing the most current version.

And finally, all communications and document sharing with the candidate should happen within the Interfolio system. Uploading documents directly to the case ensures everything is centralized, secure, and accessible to the right people.

Attention to detail in the early stages of case setup helps ensure a smooth, timely review process for everyone involved.

ISO Visa Request Fees Decreasing Effective 08/01

Effective August 1, 2025, the following visa-related fee changes will apply:

Visa request fees for J-1s, H-1Bs, TNs, and E-3s will decrease to $519 (from $580)
Amendment fees for J-1 documents (DS-2019s) will decrease to $99 (from $107)
O-1 and EB-1B hourly visa case management fees will decrease to $102 (from $117)

Visa requests that are conditionally approved on or after August 1, 2025 will be charged at the new rate. These decreases will appear on invoices issued on or after August 2.

Please note that all fees associated with H-1B, E-3, TN, and O-1/EB-1B petitions, including the $519 visa request fee, are paid by the host department and cannot be passed on to the international scholar.

For J-1 scholars who are not members of the UAW Postdoctoral Scholars Local 4121, as well as all J-2 dependents, reimbursement may be requested by the department from scholars for the $519 visa request fee and $99 J-1 amendment fee. The UAW 4121 2023-25 contract prevents units from requesting reimbursement for J-1 visa fees from postdoctoral scholars.

These fees will apply through June 30, 2026; units should expect that fees will change again effective on or after July 1, 2026. For more information on visa processing fees and U.S. government visa fees, see the Visa Fees page. Please contact ISO with questions you have regarding this announcement.