Hello SHARE and BEST Regions,
I am reaching out to provide guidance and important deadlines for J-1 and H-1B requests. Please cascade this information to any new or existing faculty that may benefit from these deadlines.
We encourage all requestors of employee and affiliate appointments to remain flexible with start dates as we cannot predict delays.
We encourage you all to review expected timelines for J-1 and H-1B hiring for a better understanding of how much lead time you need to account for for J-1 or H-1B hiring.
H1-B guidance and upcoming deadlines:
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We encourage all new H-1B submissions to include approval for USCIS premium processing as submissions without it can be unpredictable and run the risk of not being approved by an employee’s start date.
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If you have appointments with 7/1/2025 start dates or earlier start dates, we encourage you to submit those cases to BRS no later than 2/25/2025, with premium processing approval included.
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If there are any changes to an employee’s employment terms (such as a significant salary increase outside of the scheduled increase or significant job description changes) it is critical that the employee reach out to BIO directly to ask if an amendment is needed to the H1-B.
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Updated H-1B Checklist - >Employment Verification Letter (EVL) - USCIS is considering the acceptable signature as handwritten signatures, not DocuSign or other digital signatures.
J1 guidance and upcoming deadlines:
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As you start planning for your incoming Visiting Scholars and Visiting Student Researchers for 2025, we want to encourage you to use this J-1 Scholar calculator and our VS/VSR all in one guide on our website to help you determine how far in advance you need to submit your request or what is a realistic arrival date.
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This is also a friendly reminder to not let any Visiting Scholars, Visiting Researchers or Postdocs that require a visa purchase their flights or make housing arrangements until after they have received their DS-2019/visa stamp from the embassy. Timelines may vary by country or residence and we want to ensure that future visitors or employees do not have to reschedule travel.
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BRS will be asking for accurate and specific sites of activity when completing your J-1 and H-1B forms. The site activity is where the scholar or employee will be performing research or teaching and it should include the building name and room number. If there are multiple sites of activity, they should all be listed.
Considerations when discussing employment with students graduating Spring 2025:
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Please consider work authorization and enough time for academic recruitments when you are considering employment for a student that is graduating this semester. Here is a helpful checklist you can review.
We appreciate your partnership and if you have any questions, please contact your SHARE HR Representatives or your BEST HR Representative. Any H-1B or Postdoc hiring requests will be handled by your HR Partner. Any J-1 Scholar Visiting Scholar or Visiting Student Researcher requests will be handled by your HR Generalist.
Thank you,