VISA FILING FEE AND PREMIUM PROCESSING FEE CHARGES AND NEW NCA NUMBERS

(Distributed to Contracts & Grants Representatives and CGAnnounce List Serve 4/6/04)

TO: Contracts & Grants Representatives and CGAnnounce List Serve
RE: Visa Filing Fee and Premium Processing Fee Charges and New NCA Numbers

Recently the campus announced procedures and policies for billing the non-student fee services provided by the UCSF Services to International Students and Scholars (SISS) office to contract and grant awards (see C&G web site at: http://www.research.ucsf.edu/cg/howto/cgSISS.asp). There have been a number of questions raised by the campus on other visa related charges which are clarified below:

Visa Filing Fees: Visa filing fees for non-student employees working on grant and contract awards are considered allowable on both federal and non-government awards. These non-student visa filing fees should be budgeted for as a direct cost in the "other costs" category and charged proportionate to the level an individual is working on an award.

Premium Processing Fee: The premium visa processing fee for non-student employees which allows an expedited review of a visa application by the government is non-allowable on federal awards. However, departments may charge this fee to non-governmental awards as a direct charge in the "other costs" category proportionate to the level an individual is working on an award.

New NCAs for tracking visa filing and premium fees: Two new NCAs have been established for departments to charge and track these fees. For the allowable premium and basic visa filing fees NCA 437575 (SISS - Allowable) should be used. For the premium processing fee which, as noted above, is an unallowable charge to federal awards, NCA 437576 (SISS - Unallowable) should be used.

Questions regarding the above material above can be directed to Joan Kaiser at joan.kaiser@ucsf.edu.

Joan Kaiser
Associate Director, Contracts & Grants
Office of Sponsored Research
Phone: 415-476-8156
Fax: 415-476-8158
Email: joan.kaiser@ucsf.edu