Departments are responsible for initiating all H-1B requests, not the H-1B employee. For all requests, begin at least 8 months prior to the requested start date. The steps outlined below explain the process you must undertake in submitting a successful H-1B request.
Step 1: Request a Labor Conditions Application (LCA) from Human Resources. The Department of Labor takes at least 2 to 3 months to process LCAs, so begin this process immediately.
Contact the Assistant to the Director of Employment Services, Division of Human Resources at 404-727-2243 if you have any questions about the prevailing wage determination, actual wage determination and the LCA process.
Step 2: Begin gathering documentation from your department. The employee will be required to submit documentation regarding his/her credentials in ISSS Link.
You should begin this step while the LCA is being processed. Please carefully review the H-1B Submission Checklist to be sure you and the prospective H-1B employee gather all the necessary information.
All documentation must now be submitted electronically. You may wish to begin scanning and saving documents as you receive them and instruct the prospective H-1B employee to do the same.
Since all supporting documentation will now be stored electronically in ISSS Link, submission of original documents is not necessary. Original documents, however, must be available for inspection by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) upon request.
Any documents in a foreign language must be accompanied by an English translation. The translator must certify the accuracy of the translation and his or her competency in the language to be translated and English. This statement must be notarized.
Credentials from all foreign academic institutions must be evaluated for U.S. equivalency by a recognized credentials evaluation service (for a listing of some services, click here.)
Step 3: Begin the ISSS Link request.
Access ISSS Link at https://issslink.emory.edu/ and log in using your general Emory log-in and password. If you have not yet requested access to ISSS Link, please reference "Getting Started" for information on training and access.
Complete the ISSS Link request for prospective/continuing employees under Departmental Services, H-1B Requests. This includes e-forms that will be sent to the prospective employee and supervisor to complete; they will receive an automatic email with the link to the forms once the department has initiated the request process in ISSS Link.
Step 4: Supervising faculty member must complete the Deemed Export Control Attestations.
As part of the ISSS Link request, the department administrator will trigger an email to the employee’s supervisor requesting that they complete the Deemed Export Control process. Supervising faculty member must print off the Deemed Export Control decision tree, complete the decision tree as instructed, and return it to the department administrator. The administrator will scan and upload the decision tree when they begin the compliance form.
If the faculty supervisor determines through the decision tree that a license may be required, then s/he must consult with your unit's Export Controls Coordinator (See http://www.orc.emory.edu/export_control/index.cfm for a list of area or unit Export Controls Coordinators). Questions about Export Controls Regulations should be directed to your area or unit Export Controls Coordinator or to the Office of Research Compliance (orc@emory.edu). Please keep in mind that filing for export licenses takes time (45-90 days after license application) for approval from the government after filing. Until the license is received the supervising faculty member must prevent access to the controlled technology or technical data by the H-1B employee until and unless the petitioner has received the required license or other authorization to release it to the H-1B employee.
Step 5: Complete ISSS Link request.
After the employee has completed his/her forms and the supervisor has completed the Deemed Export Control process, the electronic compliance form will be available for the department administrator to access.
Complete the electronic compliance form in ISSS Link. The form will be electronically routed to the supervisor for electronic signature.
Once the compliance form has been completed by the employee's departmental supervisor, please email isss.link@emory.edu to request the printable compliance form. Please be sure to include the name of the employee for whom you submitted the request.
Once you have received it, collect appropriate signatures on the printable Compliance Form, to include:
Step 6: Scan the completed/signed compliance form and email it to ISSS.Link@emory.edu. The checks for the filing fees to can be brought to: ISSS (North Decatur Building, Suite 130). All supporting documentation will now be submitted electronically through the ISSS Link request. If everything is ready to submit but the certified Labor Condition Application, the appropriate ISSS Scholar Advisor will be notified that you have completed a request in ISSS Link and will review the request while awaiting the approved LCA.