Appointment and Visa Processing Deadlines for OPA Winter Closure

Dear Administrators,

In accordance with the University winter closure period, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will be closed from Monday, December 19th to Monday, January 2nd. Regular operations will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd 2012. The following deadlines apply to transactions you submit to OPA which you would like reviewed and processed before Winter Closure.

OPA reviews and approves appointment actions (new appointments, terminations and changes) within 2 to 5 business days from receipt, provided that the submissions are accurate and complete. As such, requests received by Wednesday, December 14th will be approved and a PeopleSoft student record created no later than the end of business on Friday, December 16th. This deadline applies to postdoctoral scholars who are US citizens or permanent residents only.

International Scholars require additional processing steps, in two offices, of the related visa documents, and therefore additional time. As such, the following deadlines apply to new appointments, terminations and change requests for international postdocs:

• Initial Postdoc Appointments (Recommendation Form) and DS-2019 with a January start date: November 28 (in order to meet Bechtel’s deadline of December 5)
• Appointment Extension (Change Form) and Extension of DS-2019: December 6 (in order to meet Bechtel’s deadline of December 12)
• Changes in start date or early termination and the accompanying amendment of existing DS-2019: December 14 (in order to meet Bechtel’s deadline of December 14)
If there is a change in start date, process Change Transaction to indicate new start date after Recommendation Form has been approved and record loaded to PeopleSoft.

• Initial Appointments (Recommendation Form) or Extension of Appointment (Change Form) for holders of H1B visas: November 30 (in order to meet Bechtel’s deadline of December 2). This applies to petitions that do not require Review Board decision. Please contact Tammy Wilson, tjwilson@stanford.edu, with questions.