The Office of Academic Personnel (OAP) and UW Human Resources (UWHR) are collaborating on a pilot program to extend H-1B and other visa sponsorship to staff positions. This program will start on July 1, 2023. For more information, click here.

Overview

The University of Washington hosts hundreds of faculty and other academic personnel from around the world each year. These individuals are collectively referred to as “international scholars.”

International scholars engage in a variety of teaching and research activities but are not enrolled as students at the UW or abroad. They hold a UW appointment and generally require a temporary, non-immigrant visa to enter the U.S.

International Scholars Operations (ISO) processes requests for visa sponsorship, provides training and guidance to UW academic units, and supports international scholars in compliance with their visas.

For questions about visas, including relevant academic appointments, contact the ISO team.

Campus departments that sponsor international scholars for visas undertake several obligations. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Assigning the international scholar a UW appointment title that is appropriate for the intended activity
  • Documenting that the scholar is fully qualified to participate in the proposed activity
  • Completing visa sponsorship paperwork (UW J and UW H Visa Request Forms)
  • Advising the scholar, before and after arrival in Seattle, of the services and facilities (e.g., housing, insurance, office or lab space) available
  • Emailing acadvisa@uw.edu in advance of changes in the scholar’s start or end date, financial support, appointment title, percent of FTE, worksite location and the like

Visa-Related News and Announcements

November 3 visa request tool update Thu, Nov 2, 2023 On Friday, November 3rd from 5-10pm there will be a scheduled outage while OAP updates our visa request tool. During this time the visa request forms, including landing pages and drafts, will be inaccessible.
Blackout period for ISO’s visa request tool Tue, May 30, 2023 Update as of 7/6: Units may resume visa request submission using revised forms available at https://lux.ap.washington.edu/visa/. The forms have been updated to incorporate and require new Workday Finance worktags.  ISO advisors and AHR specialists will reach out to units to collect worktags on visa requests that were submitted. but not approved by 06/30.  Visa intake...
February 2 visa request tool update Mon, Jan 30, 2023 On February 2, OAP will update our visa request tool.  This update will involve the following change: A third gender option, “Other”, will be added to all forms for J-1 exchange visitors and J-2 dependents. This change reflects options available in the U.S. government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and associated systems for...