For Departments

Department Role

Any request for sponsorship must come directly from the department. If an incoming international visitor inquires about sponsorship, we will answer general questions, but will ultimately direct him or her to the department contact and wait for the formal request from the department before moving forward with sponsorship.

Our office will assist departments/divisions with determining the most appropriate non-immigrant visa category for international visitors. Please provide us with a completed Intake Form, which will provide us with the necessary information to make a decision or recommendation.

The Director sends periodic newsletters to keep our department contacts informed of immigration updates, important reminders from our office, and information about the services we provide. Please contact us if you have any feedback for us, updates from your department, or would like to add an administrator to our contact list.

For more information, and for checklists and templates for visa requests, please visit My UT Health.

Department Responsibility

In advance of any action taking place, we rely on our department contacts to communicate any updates related to our foreign nationals to our office, which include any terminations, changes in source or amount of funding, site of activity, job title, significant change in job duties, or a move from full-time to part-time. Our departments liaise between our office, the faculty sponsors and/or department heads, and the international visitor. Submission of complete and accurate requests via the Student/Scholar International Portal (SIP) ensures timely processing and reduces the possibility for error. Please refer to OIS processing times for more information about when you can expect a request to be completed by our office.

In addition, we expect hosting departments to welcome international visitors, answer any questions related to their employment or stay, providing them with access to resources, and refer them to our office or appropriate on-campus offices for support.