Thank you for reviewing the December 2022 newsletter.
Payroll Dates
In light of the coming holiday season, please think ahead to any required January 1st, 2023 reappointments for monthly employees. The semi-monthly paycheck deadline for December 15 to 31 is Wednesday, December 21, 2022 due to the University’s seasonal closure. Please enter these HR BPs by Monday, December 12th to allow enough time for the Faculty HR team and Faculty Relations to review and approve BPs before the payroll cut-off.
Eligible Clinical Faculty members teaching in the MD Programs invoice for On Call teaching
Please note that invoices for On-Call teaching payments for the period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 must be received by the respective Medical Program by December 31, 2022. Please refer to the submission instructions on page two of the On-Call Teaching Invoice Template.
National Occupation Code Changes
Effective November 16, 2022, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has transitioned to the 2021 National Occupation Classification (NOC). The NOC code for Faculty has changed from 4011 to 41200.
Offers of Employment in the IRCC Portal
Department Administrators who are users of the IRCC Portal, please refer to the How to Complete Guide found on the HR website when entering Offers of Employment to ensure that you are providing information that is up-to-date and consistent with the guide. The guide has been updated with new NOC codes.
Department Administrators can submit Offers of Employment for certain faculty positions only. These positions are Postdoctoral Fellows (NOC 41200), Clinical Fellows (NOC 31100) & Visiting Faculty (NOC 41200). Any other appointments that require an IRCC Offer of Employment are to be submitted by Faculty Relations. For more information, please visit this link.
Offer of Employment Numbers – One Time Use Only
A reminder that the Offer of Employment (OOE) number may only be used once. It should not be used by the foreign national a second time when applying for a new work permit. If used again it will result in the foreign national being without status and needing to apply for Restoration of Status which could take months. There is a cost associated with this and the individual must cease performing any work for UBC and all pay ceases.
Expiring Work Permits & December Break
Faculty members at UBC on a work permit and whose appointments will continue must renew their work permits in advance of the expiry date of their current permit. This is particularly important for those members on work permits that are expiring near the end of the year and who are considering leaving Canada during the December break. Individuals who apply for an extension of their work permit prior to the expiry of the current one will normally have Maintained Status. This means that UBC may continue to pay salary while the individual awaits their new work permit – note that Maintained Status remains in place only if the individual remains in Canada. A faculty member leaving Canada while they do not have a valid work permit will not have a status for work purposes and UBC will have to cease paying them and they must cease working until a positive decision on their application has been made. This may also impact their ability to return to Canada.
A decision regarding their application could take many months. Note that the current IRCC processing times for a new work permit for the same employer is 168 business days (approximately 6 months). Administrators need to inform FoM Faculty HR or Faculty Relations immediately of such cases.
Questions regarding implied status and what happens should a foreign academic leave Canada should be directed to contact immigration.help@ubc.ca.
It is requested that administrators generate the report “Foreign Worker Permit Information – Distributed” to view the work permit expiry information for your faculty members. For best practice, it is recommended that administrators generate this report 6-9 months in advance of the work permit expiry date.
Appointment Start Dates for Foreign Academics
When making job offers to foreign academics and establishing the appointment start date consideration should be given to work permit processing times. Processing times vary and are dependent on a number of factors including the nationality and residence of the foreign academic. In some circumstances, it may take many months for immigration officials to process an application. Start dates for foreign academics should normally begin after the posted work permit processing times. Realistic start dates are particularly important for term faculty appointments such as postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty.
Offer Letter Templates
As announced in the previous month’s newsletter, please ensure that your offer letters for Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Research Associates, and some term positions are prepared in the current template from the Faculty Relations page. The FoM Tenure-stream, FoM Term faculty, and FoM Clinical Fellow (NUF) offer letter templates have also been updated. Please visit MedNet (under Hiring Faculty > Making The Offer) to download the updated FoM offer letter templates for:
- FoM Full-Time Faculty – Research Stream
- FoM Full-Time Faculty – Educational Leadership Stream
- Clinical or Academic Administrator Appointments
- Clinical or Academic Administrator Reappointments
- FoM Clinical Fellow (NUF) – unpaid at UBC
Please be reminded that the offer letters for Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Research Associates, Clinical Fellows can no longer contain the OOE-A Number. It must be provided after the foreign worker has provided a copy of their signed & accepted offer letter. Once the unit administrator receives a copy of the offer letter accepted by the foreign worker, the OOE can be entered in the IRCC Employer Portal and they will subsequently need to provide the A-Number to the foreign worker via the LMIA-Exemption Offer Number Confirmation Letter. The normal practice of administrators entering the OOE for Postdoctoral Fellows and Visitors Administrators remains unchanged. Please ensure you are following the IRCC Offer of Employment– Completion Guide for Postdoc & Visitor Appointments. Once the OOE A-Number has been finalized, please use the new template letterto provide the A-Number to the foreign worker. Please copy the UBC HR Immigration Team (HR Immigration Help – UBCV or Trisha Kasawski – UBCO) on your communication so that they may follow up with case-specific work permit application instructions. Please always include a summary for the immigration team as follows:
“For the immigration team, Dr. [Insert Full Legal Name] is a citizen of [insert country] currently residing in [insert country of residence]. They will be a [Post-Doctoral Fellow/Visiting Professor] at UBC as of December 15, 2022.”
Please note that Faculty Relations will continue to enter the OOEs for all other appointments and will provide the A-Number to the UBC Immigration team who will send an email to the foreign hires with the documentation and case-specific work permit application instructions. Please refer to the Faculty Relations Updates page for full details.
Recruitment Planner and Space Planning
We have updated the Recruitment Planner template (Tab 3: FoM Proposed Space Plan) to align with the Space Planning Unit’s practice of receiving and approving space requests through Qualtrics. The template can be downloaded from MedNet (under Hiring Faculty > Getting Started).
To better track requests, Departments are asked to first submit the Academic Space Allocation Request Form and enter the reference ID number with the details of their plan in Tab 3: FoM Proposed Space Plan prior to submitting the Recruitment Planner to FoM Faculty HR. The Space Planning Unit will confirm their approval via email to the Department and FoM Faculty HR. Departments are responsible for submitting a new request if the space allocations change during the recruitment process.
Affiliate Faculty Titles
ISC has confirmed that the Affiliate titles have been updated in Workday and added an Affiliate Lecturer title as a new option. You will notice that the rank “Affiliate Instructor” has been converted to “Affiliate Assistant Professor of Teaching”, and “Affiliate Senior Instructor” has been converted to “Affiliate Associate Professor of Teaching”. Please ensure that the Affiliate rank aligns with the individual’s position at their home institution.
Changes to the Visa ID Types in Workday
Changes to Visa ID Types in Workday come into effect recently. These changes are necessary to ensure that we are correctly recording the method under which a foreign national is authorized to work or hold an appointment at UBC.
The following are the changes to Visa ID Types:
| Name Changed | New Type | Inactivated |
|---|---|---|
| -Maintained Status (Post-Graduation Work Permit): Previously “PGWP -Maintained Status”Study Permit: Previously “Student Permit” | -Work Permit (Co-op / Internship) -Work Without a Permit (Authorized) | -Unknown -Visitor Record -Work Permit |
Details of all Visa ID Types available in Workday:
| Visa ID Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Maintained Status | Used when an existing foreign national has applied for a permit prior to the expiry of their current status. Refer to the Maintained Statusinformation for specific details. |
| Maintained Status (Post-Graduation Work Permit) | Specific to individuals who have applied for a Post-Graduate Work Permit. Further information found on the HR website. |
| Study Permit | For foreign nationals who are working under a Study Permit |
| Work Permit (Co-op / Internship) | For students who have a co-op placement or internship related to their program of study. |
| Work Permit (LMIA) | For those who obtained a work permit under a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). |
| Work Permit (LMIA Exemption) | For foreign workers whose work permit is issued under an LMIA exemption. In the academic world this would typically be Postdoctoral Fellows, Medical Residents Clinical Fellows, Clinical Faculty, Visiting Faculty or US or Mexican citizens under NAFTA/CUSMA. |
| Work Permit (Open) | For those who have obtained an Open Work Permit, which is a permit that does not specify the employer or occupation. A Spousal Open Work Permit, Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) or Post Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) are examples. |
| Work Without a Permit (Authorized) | Use for individuals who have been provided with authorization to work without a work permit. This includes those entering under Business Visitor exemption, the 120-Researcher exemption and the Short-Term exemption. |
Corrections are now required for those who have a Visa ID Type that has been inactivated (see table above). Faculty Relations has shared with us a list of those faculty who either have a Visa ID type that was inactivated or have a blank type in Workday. FoM Faculty HR will be reaching out to each Department with a list for the Visa ID Type to be updated in Workday.
To understand whether a work permit is issued under an LMIA or LMIA exemption, administrators need to look at the work permit in the section entitled “LMIA or Exemption No.” If the Work Permit is under an LMIA Exemption an A number will appear:
If under an LMIA only a number will appear. If an Open Work Permit, the Employer field will be “ANY” and the Occupation field will be “OPEN.”
Further information on Visa ID Type is found on the HR website can be found here.
If you have any questions regarding the above information please contact the Faculty Relations general email (Faculty & Postdoc related).
MedNet Modernization
The Digital Solutions team is finalizing the design and development of the new MedNet site on WordPress. The new MedNet site launch date has been revised to December 12th and this will be announced to FoM faculty and staff via The Link newsletter. Please stay tuned!
Memo and Calculator for Salary Awards: Faculty and Academic Renewal Hires
Please refer to the attached message regarding a memo on salary awards for faculty hires funded under the faculty renewal and academic renewal programs. There is also a calculator that has been created to help with calculating the costs under the different options for both programs as the funding models are different. If you have any questions, please contact Sandy Liu.