Category: Visas

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.

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.

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.

The Office of Academic Personnel (OAP) is pleased to announce that we’ve built an enhanced J visa request form, which is more user-friendly and allows for more efficient review. This form is live as of June 1, 2020. Here are a few of the highlights!

• Ability to see summary information about previous requests including request number, scholar name, start date, and request status
• More intuitive user interface
  • Appointment information now comes prior to funding information (sections 3 and 4 swapped)
  • Navigation links so you can navigate up and down through the request
  • Request numbers are standardized to always use the Request Tracker (RT)/ticket number, even for invoices
• Better data validation, which should highlight common issues prior to OAP review
  • Checks for “short-term scholar” category only used for visits up to 6 months
  • Title-specific reminders based on title selected, such as information about the maximum appointment length
  • Warnings related to start dates, funding and salary minimums
  • Ability to submit documentation for scholars with previous U.S. visits
• Better behind-the-scenes tools for OAP
• Better invoicing
  • Invoices will be generated and sent out more quickly
  • Invoice file names will include the scholar’s name and request number
  • Versioned invoices will be used to track corrections, e.g. when budget information changes
  • Invoice numbers in MyFinancial.desktop (MyFD) will correspond to the Request Tracker (RT)/ticket number with line numbers and descriptions for each charge

This initiative is part of OAP’s strategic priority 3:“Get ‘Leaner’ on at least one complex process per year.” OAP reviewed common issues from past J visa requests to identify form improvements.

Thanks very much to ABC Shared Services and the College of Arts and Sciences Shared Services for providing feedback and identifying important user interface improvements.

The H visa request form is next in line for review and enhancement.

The new J-1 Visa Request form and the updated  J Visa Intake Form are now available. If you have any questions or issues with the new form, please contact acadvisa@uw.edu.