The Division of International Services (DIS) provides immigration-related assistance to NIH foreign national scientists. Multiple recent policy changes have significantly affected our NIH scientist community. This includes new travel restrictions, proposed immigration regulatory changes, and updated NIH guidelines to accommodate for COVID-19 flexibilities. DIS remains committed to providing resources and guidance to the NIH community during this time.
Amidst this sea of change, DIS is pleased to announce the promotion of Sarah Royalty to Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy Director of DIS. Her nearly 10 years of experience with the office's processes and procedures, as well as her consummate professionalism, makes her well-positioned to assume this leadership role. Sarah earned her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. Prior to joining DIS, Sarah worked in immigration services for the private sector. In her new role, she will develop and implement a quality assurance program and directly oversee the DIS Customer Service Team.
The DIS team continues to expand its services as we adapt to working remotely. At the same time, due to COVID concerns and the evolving immigration environment, DIS has experienced an incredible rise in demand for its services. DIS's Customer Service Team – which focuses on a broad range of advisory services – has found ways to adjust to increased demand. As advertised in the Summer 2020 News2Use article, one of our new services is advising via Zoom "walk-ins," available Monday-Thursday from 1:30 – 3:30 pm ET. While we miss our in-person contact with scientists, Zoom has increased your access to DIS Immigration Specialists. From July-September, DIS assisted nearly 200 members of the NIH community via Zoom. Scientists from overseas and across the country, including those in Montana and North Carolina, have easily called in for one-on-one personal advising. Scientists have called from home or the lab with experiments running in the background, and NIH administrative staff have also started to use our Zoom advising service.
Furthermore, the DIS website committee has published 250 website updates since March to keep you informed of changes in policies and DIS procedures. We encourage our scientist and administrative communities to refer to our online guidance during this time. Some recently updated content includes COVID-19 Information, Remote Check-in with DIS guidance, Extended Absence from NIH, and Contractor, Tenant, and Volunteer Badges. Additionally, in the past seven months, the DIS Customer Service Team has responded to almost 13,500 emails and over 600 phone calls. Comparatively, DIS answered 11,000 emails in all of 2019. DIS has also resumed our document pick-up and travel signature service via a socially distanced pick-up system. Since June, we have had nearly 400 scientists use this service.
The highlights above represent a very small slice of DIS services. DIS's Non-FTE and FTE case processing teams have been working tirelessly, in the face of fluctuating immigration policies, to meet the needs of NIH and ensure that foreign national scientists are able to start and continue their critical work. We are grateful for our dedicated staff as they continue to work tirelessly to support the NIH foreign national scientist community.
Stay tuned with DIS! If you are an administrator, subscribe to our key contact newsletter: KEYCONS-L@list.nih.gov. If you are PI, subscribe to: VISITING_PROGRAM_SPONSORS@LIST.NIH.GOV. If you are a foreign national scientist, subscribe to: NIHISBNEWS@list.nih.gov.
