Category: Visas

On June 30, OAP will update our visa request tool. To perform the update there will be a scheduled outage from 4-6pm when the tool, including visa request forms, will be unavailable.

The upgrade will affect draft visa requests. OAP strongly encourages units to finalize and submit any drafts ready for OAP review before the scheduled outage. Anyone with a draft visa request in the system as of June 30 at 4pm will receive an email asking them to carefully review their drafts. Some saved draft data will need to be reentered manually.

Improvements in this update include the following:

• More user-friendly landing page
• “Manage files” function enhancements
  • New easy-to-use “drag and drop” upload option
  • Ability to delete recently-uploaded files
• Improved invoicing
  • Better functionality for post-billing invoice corrections
  • More accurate invoicing for J-1 amendments
• Easier-to-use “country of citizenship” fields

Significant changes going forward:

• H-1B prevailing wage documentation collection
  • Units will now have to provide Prevailing Wage Intake Form and copy of job ad, if relevant (unless the title or visa category is exempt), to successfully submit the H Visa Request.
  • This will allow ISO to start processing earlier, shortening total processing time.
• New “Add J-2 dependent” form
  • This replaces the “Request For Family J-2 DS-2019” form.
  • Units can now add a dependent for an existing J-1 by going to their list of J-1 visa requests and selecting Amend > Add Dependents
• J-1 field changes
  • The J-1 visa request form now asks slightly different questions for scholars currently in the U.S. These will allow ISO advisors to more quickly determine eligibility for extensions.
  • “Home country position” field values will now align with ICE’s SEVIS lookup table (table 28)
• Record retention
  • Uploaded files will now be deleted one year from when a request is complete. (Note: The visa tool is not OAP’s system of record for visa records; OAP uses UW-IT’s Enterprise Document Management system to ensure compliance with records retention.)
• Revised intake forms
  • The H and J Visa Intake Forms will also be updated to reflect these changes; please make sure you are using the most recent version starting July 1.

2021/06/30 – upgrade complete; link added to the new “add J-2 dependent” form.

Contact acadvisa@uw.edu with any questions.

On January 15 OAP will release some updates to our visa request tool. Due to the updates there will be an outage from noon to 2pm when the tool, including visa request forms, will be unavailable. These updates introduce a new required J-1 amendment form and functionality for creating new and managing existing requests.

Here’s what you will notice:

• The new J-1 amendment form:
  • Will be required going forward to change program dates, biographic information, funding information, or certain other information for J-1 exchange visitors.
  • Can be created from an existing visa request, in which case most of the fields will be filled in already, or they can be created “from scratch”.
  • Does not replace the Request Family DS-2019 form and cannot be used to add J-2 dependents at this time.
• A new launch page that allows administrators to easily find existing visa requests and create new requests.
• The ability to manage visa request files from the submitted J visa requests and submitted H visa requests pages.
  • Instead of emailing files through ISO’s ticketing system (RT), department administrators will be able to upload files by browsing to a list of visa requests and selecting Actions -> Manage files.
  • ISO will also be able to send files to department administrators through the visa request tool. Whenever a file is added, department administrators will receive an automated update.
  • Note: Files sent to or from ISO by email will not appear; only files uploaded via the visa request tool will be visible.
• “Copy to new” functionality for J-1 and H-1B visa requests from the submitted J visa requests and submitted H visa requests pages:
  • Administrators will be able to select an existing visa request and use Actions -> Copy to New to create a new visa request from that existing request. This can be used to facilitate extension requests.
• School/college/campus (S/C/C) level access can be granted for designated administrators to see all visa requests for that S/C/C. Access can be requested by contacting acadvisa@uw.edu.

The above improvements have been made based on unit feedback; we appreciate any additional comments on this tool!

2021-01-15: The updates are live; form links have been added.

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.