Category: Visas

UPDATE to USCIS Fee Change Announcement (03/21/2024)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has clarified its new filing fee structure to confirm that UW and other state higher education institutions are subject to the lower fees for non-profits. This means that filing fees for UW H-1B petitions will not change as of April 1, 2024. Fees for other visa types and for the I-140 Immigrant Petition will change as noted on ISO’s Visa Fees page; units should continue to follow guidance on that page as to fee amounts and check issuance.

Previous announcement noted below:

USCIS Fee Change Announcement (03/14/2024)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced new filing fees to go into effect on April 1, 2024. The new fee structure will require different filing fees for Form I-129 based on the visa status sought and on the non-profit status of the employer. There is no change to the H-1B Fraud Prevention Fee of $500 or the Premium Processing Fee of $2805, but the way that the premium processing period is calculated will change from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.

ISO advisors will work hard to file as many H-1B petitions with USCIS before the fee change goes into effect on April 1. For cases that cannot be filed with USCIS before April 1, the new fee amounts will apply.

There is some ambiguity as to which fee amounts will apply to UW and other state higher education institutions. Pending resolution of that ambiguity, which we expect within the next few months, ISO recommends the following set of separate filing fee checks for H-1B petitions:

• $460 I-129 filing fee for H-1B*
• $320 I-129 filing fee for H-1B*
• $600 Asylum Program fee (new)
• $500 H-1B Fraud Prevention Fee (required for new H-1Bs and changes of employer)
• $2805 Premium Processing Fee (where necessary or recommended by ISO to expedite USCIS processing)

*Other fees may apply for other visa types. See our Visa Fees page for information on how to request USCIS filing fee checks.

USCIS may ultimately determine that UW is subject to lower fee amounts, and return the $320 and $600 filing fee checks to UW; in that case, ISO would return the filing fee checks to the units that issued them, and update guidance to campus accordingly. For the time being, since USCIS will reject petitions if the fee checks attached to them do not match the relevant fee amounts exactly, filing with the checks listed above will minimize the chances of USCIS rejecting the petition.

If you have questions about which fee checks are required for a specific visa request, please contact ISO. For visa requests already in process, ISO will contact units to request revised fee checks where necessary.

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.

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 forms have been updated to collect worktags; use the current versions going forward:
  • H Visa Intake Form (edition date 06/30/2023)
  • J Visa Intake Form (edition date 07/05/2023)
• The H Visa Request Form and H Visa Intake Form have also been updated to accommodate staff titles, consistent with the joint OAP/UWHR staff visa pilot program. 
• The H Visa Request Checklist (edition date June 2023) has been refreshed to correct links and checkboxes and to include staff visa sponsorship.

Please contact ISO with any questions you have regarding these changes.

Update as of 7/3: Visa request submission will be re-opened once OAP has access to UWFT  financial information, which is currently estimated to be 7/6/2023.

OAP has been working to smoothly manage the transition of our Lux visa request system from UW’s legacy financial system to the worktags being implemented as part of the UW Finance Transformation (“UWFT”). This week, OAP was informed that worktag data will not be available until 07/05. As a result, it will not be possible to accept visa requests between 06/17 and 07/05.

Units should therefore plan around the following dates:

• Now through 06/16: units submit visa requests (including H visa requests, J visa requests, J amendments, and J-2 dependent requests) per the current process using existing budget codes for billing. 
• 06/16: DEADLINE to submit visa requests using existing budget codes; any requests submitted on or before 06/16 and conditionally approved will be billed before FT cutover.
• 06/17-07/05: Visa request black-out period; request forms (including drafts) are unavailable and visa request submissions paused. Other Lux functionality (including “Manage Files” pages and “My submitted” pages) will remain accessible.
• 07/06: Visa request forms available; units may resume visa request submission using UWFT worktags. Saved draft visa requests less than 90 days old will still be available. Requestors will need to add UWFT worktags to these drafts before submitting.

If you have an urgent visa request during the blackout period, you should contact ISO, who will assess the urgency of the request and identify any alternative pathways to continue processing.

We appreciate your patience during this transition period.