Skip to content
News

News

USCIS Fee Change Announcement

A federal court has issued an order preventing the implementation of the new USCIS fee schedule that was to go into effect on October 2. Because this situation is subject to sudden change, ISO advisors will reach out with individual guidance in any cases close to filing with USCIS and update this blog post as needed. Thank you for your understanding.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has announced new filing fees to go into effect on Friday, October 2, 2020. The most significant change is that the new fee structure will require different filing fees for Form I-129 based on the visa status sought (e.g., H-1B, TN, E-3, or O-1); see the chart below for more details.
There is no change to the H-1B Fraud Prevention Fee of $500 or the Premium Processing Fee of $1,440, but the way that the premium processing period is calculated will change from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.

USCIS form name Current Fee New Fee
I-129 Petition for Alien Worker $460 Varies. See details below.
filed for H-1B temporary worker $460 $555
filed for TN NAFTA treaty worker $460 $695
filed for E-3 Australian treaty worker $460 $695
filed for O-1 individual with extraordinary ability $460 $705
I-539 Application to Change or Extend Status (filed for dependents) $370 + $85 biometrics fee for each applicant $400 (no separate biometrics fee)
I-140 Immigrant Petition $700 $555

ISO checklists and web pages will be updated with the new fees. If you have questions about which fee applies for a specific visa request, please contact ISO.

Upcoming changes to OAP Visa Request Forms

The Office of Academic Personnel (OAP), in collaboration with the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), is pleased to announce some important changes to the H and J Visa Request Forms. Most importantly, the H Visa Request Form will be moved to a new tool at 5pm on Friday, July 31, in the same way the J Visa Request Form was updated on June 1. The H and J Intake Forms will be updated accordingly.

As part of this update, units will no longer need to create separate Deemed Export Compliance Attestations (DECAs); instead, DECA information from the new H Visa Request Form will be sent directly to OSP for immediate review. To facilitate this process, OAP has added several fields to the H Visa Intake and Visa Request Forms: purpose of stay, faculty supervisor, and grants/contracts being used for funding. If additional information is needed, you will be contacted by OSP. 

OAP is also adding “save as draft” functionality to both the J and the H Visa Request Forms. “Save as draft” will save everything except attachments; drafts will be saved for 90 days.

Here are a few other highlights:

  • Standardized country list: Country of birth, countries of citizenship, and country of residence will now all be required and will be selectable from a list of countries recognized by the U.S. government. This will reduce back-and-forth needed with the ISO team.
  • The display of “print views” used for conditional approvals will be more legible
  • The J Visa Request Form will now allow export compliance review by OSP.

Please feel free to contact ISO with any questions or feedback you have about the new forms.

Data Clean Up for Teaching Professor Track Conversion

The Office of Academic Personnel team is working hard to prepare for the implementation of the new teaching professor track, with the goal of converting eligible academic personnel to the new titles on September 16. To ensure a smooth conversion in Workday, all unit administrators should be taking the following steps:

Step 1: Run the “TEMP Report- Data Review for Teaching Professor Track Implementation” in Workday
• Review the output
• Ensure all individuals you expect to convert are on the report and all conversion indicators are “Yes”
• If any conversion indicators are “No”, make appropriate updates in Workday to ensure the individual’s inclusion in the conversion
• If you have an individual who you think should appear on the report but who did not, please reach out to Jim Ballew at jballew@uw.edu.

Step 2: Updating Academic Appointments and Positions
For anyone who currently holds a conversion-eligible academic appointment or position, please do the following:
• Make any necessary updates to academic appointments for this population
• Make any necessary updates to positions for this population

Step 3: Adding New Academic Appointments and Positions
For anyone who has accepted a new academic appointment to a conversion-eligible title, please do the following:
• Enter the academic appointment
• Enter the position
• If you have an existing faculty member who is taking summer hiatus and will be starting a new position in a conversion-eligible title in the fall, contact Jim Ballew at jballew@uw.edu.

Please be sure to make changes by Wednesday, July 15. Contact Jim Ballew with any questions.

For additional support, check out the following resources:

• Sextant, an OAP tool outlining position and appointment data for Workday (Note: Teaching professor track details won’t be added until August)
• Summer 2020 Admin Forum and the teaching professor track blog post, both which give an overview of the new track
• Add Academic Appointment Track user guide and Update Academic Appointment Track user guide, references created by the ISC for specific Workday guidance
• A complete list of Workday academic personnel data audit reports is available on the OAP blog