Initiate Your Case

The University of Florida has retained the law firm  Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP (“Fragomen”) to handle the university’s immigrant and non immigrant visa petitions.  Fragomen is the largest firm in the United States exclusively dedicated to immigration law, with 30 offices worldwide, including over 150 U.S. immigration attorneys and over 700 support staff.

In conjunction with the ICS unit, the Fragomen team will advise, prepare and file non-immigrant and immigrant employment based cases on behalf of the University of Florida.  To initiate the process on behalf of the employees, departmental administrators must submit an online questionnaire on the UF immigration Home page (IHP).

If you do not have a login and password, please contact ICS at 352-392-2477.

Initiate Your Case

Here is a step-by-step guide highlighting the process.

Required Documents

• Offer Letter
• Immigration Addendum (may be part of offer letter)
• Actual Wage Form (not required for TN or O-1)
• Actual Wage Memo (not required for TN or O-1)
• CTTD (not required for TN or E-3)
• Job Ad/Job Description
• Course Sampling if teaching (Course number, name and brief description)
• Visa documents
• Passport identity page
• Visa
• EAD card (if applicable)
• DS-2019 (if applicable)
• I-20 (if applicable)
• I-797 for current visa status (if applicable)
• receipt notices for any green card filing notice for the foreign national
• Diploma/Degree
• ACE Credentials if foreign degree
• Current CV/resume

Academic Credential Evaluation (ACE)

An academic credential evaluation is obtained from an organization which evaluates the foreign education and its equivalency to the education of a U.S. degree.

Learn About Obtaining an ACE

Offer of Employment Letter

Specific information related to the employment of international employees must appear in their respective offer of employment letters. When preparing your offer of employment letter please use the information at the link below.

Offer of Employment Letter Required Information

Fee Information

• University of Florida Fragomen Fee Schedule
• ICS Fees and Rush Chart

Filing Fee Checks

THREE SEPARATE CHECKS – There is NO invoice for filing fee checks

• Creating a Non-Purchase Order Invoice
  NOTE: In the General section of the Buyer Invoice tab, the users need to fill out the 2 fields “Payment Handing Code” AND “Payment Handing Justification” to indicate the department will pick up the physical checks from Disbursements Office.
• Invoice for Nonimmigrant Petition for Worker

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the department register in the Fragomen Portal?

Please email ICS at HR-ICS@ufl.edu to request to be registered in the Fragomen Connect Portal. ICS will ask Fragomen to register you in the Connect Portal. ICS will need the following information in order to register you in the Fragomen Portal:

• Last name
• First name
• Department
• Department’s address with Room or Suite number
• Phone number
• Email address

How does the department request an Actual Wage Report?

The purpose of the Actual Wage Report is to compile wage information on all employees in the same position title from the sponsoring department. To access the Generating Actual Wage Report, department administrators must request the UF_ER_USER security role from their DSA.

You will need the following role to access the report: UF_ER_USER (Provides basic access to enterprise reporting)

Instructions for Generating Actual Wage Report:

Designated administrative staff members in the hiring departments and centers are required to generate the Actual Wage Report in-house by accessing their MyUFL accounts. The Security Officer in each unit is required to request and approve specific roles for the designated staff member.

Login to http://my.ufl.edu

Select the following in sequence:

• “Main Menu”
• “Enterprise Reporting”
• “Access Reporting”
• “Shared Folders” – be sure to change the entries per page from 15 to 50 OR you will have to go to the next page by clicking the arrow on the top to go the 2nd page.
• “20010000 – International Center” folder
• “H-1B and E-3 Status – Request for Actual Wage:

Select Department Code (first 2 digits). This gives a list of all department codes starting with these 2 digits, then select all department codes for (your department).

Enter the job code and click “Search”. Example: Enter job code 000530 for Assistant Professor. Click “Search”. Result: A PDF document with all employees in selected department with a job code of 000530.

How can an international employee report an address change?

According to U.S. immigration law, most non-citizens living in the United States must inform U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) when they change addresses. This does not mean that they must ask the U.S. government for permission to move houses. This is important because USCIS needs to have the updated address information for when they must mail important notices. International employees need to update their address with USCIS at https://www.uscis.gov/ar-11.

What is an ACE?

Academic Credential Evaluation (ACE) is obtained from an organization which evaluates the foreign education and its equivalency to the education of a U.S. degree.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires a copy of an official ACE equivalency for degree(s) awarded outside of the U.S.

Departments should verify if the international employee secured the qualifying degree(s) in the U.S. or not. If the qualifying degree(s) was not earned within the U.S., the department should advise the international employee that they will need to secure the ACE from a company that is a member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES).

Here is the link to a listing of NACES evaluators: http://www.naces.org/members.html

The following companies are recommended by the Fragomen immigration attorney:

FIS (Foundation for International Services, Inc.)

Josef Silny & Associates, Inc.

Please note that any credentials not originally in English, will also require official translations (international employee’s personal translations are not acceptable).

What is the I-94?

When an international employee enters the United States, they will be questioned by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regarding their reason for coming to the United States. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer will issue the I-94 Arrival/Departure Record, in electronic format.

Please be sure to review the admission status and admit until date. If these are not correct contact ICS immediately.

The expiration date on the I-94 record, and not the expiration date on the visa or passport admission stamp, determines how long an international employee is permitted to remain in the United States. 

The international employee must always have a valid I-94 while in the United States. The international employee must keep track of the expiration date on their I-94 record and those of their family members.  

Please note that it is the responsibility of the department to forward copies of relevant immigration documents (e.g., I-94 records for the employee and their family members) to ICS.

When should the department request the filing fee checks?

Since checks are only valid for 6 months, please request the checks no earlier than 6 months prior to the desired start date.

When should the department request the Fragomen legal fee check (department)?

ICS suggests that the department please wait to request any legal fee checks until Fragomen forwards the appropriate invoice to the department in order to avoid any confusion.

Who are the filing fee checks made out to?

The filing fee checks should be made payable to:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services
24000 Avila RD RM 2302
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 United States

How does an international employee or department check the status of a case after it has been filed with USCIS?

USCIS allows you to check the status of a case by using their online Case Status tool. Please utilize this link to track the status of your application : Case Status Online – Case Status Search (uscis.gov)

When will the international employee receive their I-797 Approval Notice?

Once USCIS approves the international employee’s petition, they will forward the I-797 Approval Notice to Fragomen. Please note that it can take anywhere from several days to several weeks for USCIS to mail the approval notice to Fragomen. Once Fragomen receives the approval notice, they will prepare an approval packet and send it to ICS via FedEx. Once received, ICS will notify the department to pick up the original approval notice. The department will then forward the approval notice to the international employee.

When should the department submit an “End of Program” form?

Departments should submit the EOP form to ICS at least, five business days prior to the employment termination.
OR
Departments should submit the EOP as soon as they receive a copy of the permanent resident card from the international employee.

For any additional questions, please email ICS at HR-ICS@ufl.edu

Note: University of Florida policy does not permit private attorneys to submit immigration related petitions or applications on its behalf. University of Florida employees are not authorized to sign the Notice of Appearance as Attorney or Representative (Form G-28), which grants authority to an attorney to act on all aspects of immigration on behalf of the University; accordingly, University of Florida employees are prohibited from attempting to grant such permission. All applications and petitions associated with University of Florida sponsored nonimmigrant statuses must be submitted by ICS/HRS.