Visiting Scholars/Scientists Eligibility

Scholars who are not entitled to appointments as officers of instruction or research but who wish to use the facilities of the University to pursue research may be named visiting scholars. This status is conferred by the Associate Provost and Director of the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) and on the recommendation of the Committee of Instruction (COI) and the Department Chair. Note that this status is distinct from that of a visiting student.

Visiting scholars are invited by faculty sponsors and the department chair to use Columbia resources for independent, non-collaborative research. Most people who obtain the visiting scholar designation are international scholars, but domestic scholars may also apply.

Visiting Scholar status provides:

• A CU ID and access to University facilities (gym, libraries, etc.)

• Full library access and borrowing privileges

• J-1 Visa sponsorship: for non-US citizens (unless they have already received sponsorship, i.e. Fulbright)

Procedures

Step 1:

Potential visiting scholars should identify and contact a faculty member about the possibility of that professor sponsoring their visit. Once a professor agrees to sponsor a scholar (and confirms with the department chair that they will not be on leave during the visit), the faculty member will email the dates of stay and a CV to the department Chair and DAAF. The COI, acting as an ad hoc committee, will review the request to determine if it should be approved. Please note that a faculty member can normally sponsor only one visiting scholar per academic year.

Step 2:

After approval, the Department of Classics will work with the Provost’s Office on obtaining the next stage of approval. By this stage, the prospective visiting scholar will have provided the Classics Department with the following:

• a full description (or the original proposal) of the project on which they are currently working

• a description of the research done to date

• a detailed explanation of why they want to come to Columbia, specifically addressing:

  • the research they expect to accomplish while here;

  • the specific materials/equipment they want to access at Columbia, and/or particular faculty or officers of research with whom they want to discuss their project in detail because of their expertise on the topic

  • The faculty member or officer of research whom they want as their sponsor and why this person would be most helpful to their project.

Step 3:

Once approved by the Provost’s Office, the Classics department will initiate an application with the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO).

If the scholar already secured a visa via an avenue such as a Fulbright scholarship, the department will need to obtain certain documents from them to register them as a visitor with ISSO. Details can be found at the link below:

https://isso.columbia.edu/content/sponsoring-and-extending-visiting-scholar-without-j-1

If they have not secured a visa, then Columbia University will have to sponsor their J-1 visa application.

• Applicants must submit visa applications three months before the start date.

• DAAF will work with the visiting scholar to submit the required paperwork for Visual Compliance screening.

• The visitor must pay the $500 application fee to the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO).

• The visitor must provide documentation that they have the equivalent of $2,800 per month available to them during their stay (as well as an additional $1,000 per month for a spouse and $500 per month for each child under 21).

• If the application needs to be processed on a rush basis—less than a semester’s notice—the FedEx charge to send the paperwork to the visitor will be charged to the sponsoring faculty member.

• Details can be found at the link below

  https://isso.columbia.edu/content/sponsoring-and-extending-j-1-visiting-scholar

Step 4:

The ISSO will email the visiting scholar their CU UNI and instructions on how to activate it. Visiting scholars are automatically given borrowing privileges once they arrive on campus and pick up their ID cards.

***While Fulbright recipients with recent PhDs will generally fit into the visiting scholar category and be cost-free to the department, one thing that you have to be particularly careful about are scholars applying for European post-doctoral research fellow (PDRF) mobility grants, as Columbia’s rules require the hosting department to pay them a minimum salary (which the grant doesn’t always meet) and/or costly health insurance, e.g., $1200 a month if the PDRF elects the Columbia plan.