NIH hosts approximately 1,800 scientists from around the world. The Division of International Services (DIS) collaborates closely with Institutes Centers and Offices (ICOs) to facilitate the immigration process for these scientists to come to the NIH and conduct lifesaving biomedical research.
DIS's goal within the ORS Strategic Plan is to modernize the DIS process and fulfill the needs of international recruitment and retention by proactively enhancing immigration services in multiple ways to support scientists and ICOs. To date, DIS has achieved the following milestones:
1. Improve Case Processing Times - DIS's case processing times increased at the start of the pandemic and again during a period of office turnover. Through training new staff members and updating SOPs/manuals, we have significantly reduced case processing times. In fact, we are now processing cases faster than ever before. DIS hopes to further reduce case processing times and maintain the reductions by continuing staff training and implementing the DIS Customer Portal.
2. Create and Launch a Customer Portal - In the past, DIS used fillable PDF forms to gather required immigration information for foreign national scientists. We developed the DIS Customer Portal to integrate these forms with our internal database. One of its features allows scientists and administrative staff to submit requests online.
3. Update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - Due to the changes brought by the pandemic and various regulatory updates, DIS's ways of working have changed. To ensure that SOPs reflect these changes, DIS completed a comprehensive review and update of major SOPs. These updates reflect not only our current processes but move towards discovering more efficient ways of working.
4. Introduce New Customer Services - Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we offered in-person walk-in advising where customers on or near the Bethesda campus could come to the DIS office and ask questions. DIS transitioned to Zoom Drop-in Advising during the pandemic. This allows NIH remote sites to also attend drop-in sessions, resulting in a major increase in advising. Additionally, customers who prefer to schedule a one-on-one advising appointment with an immigration specialist can now use an online scheduler. This new process has reduced the administrative burden for DIS staff and resulted in having the highest number of advising appointments we have ever had.
When developing new services, DIS wanted to be proactive instead of reactive to customer needs by creating videos on popular topics. DIS's new Video Production Committee creates video content for our YouTube channel which are then embedded into our website on relevant webpages. The DIS channel has thousands of views and counting.
DIS will continue to review our processes and implement new procedures to ensure we are moving towards accomplishing our strategic goals and serving the NIH community.
