CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Thai
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
Our Thai client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in May 2009. She came to the U.S. for business internship training, and her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. In June 2012, our client married his U.S. Citizen husband and she wanted to apply for permanent residency. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Thai Embassy in the United States. Our office contacted the Thai Embassy in Washington D.C. to make sure we knew all the requirements needed for their office to issue a no objection statement. The Embassy requested several different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, a notarized copy of the marriage certificate, a notarized copy of his US citizen husband’s US passport Biographic Page, a notarized copy of her valid Thai passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On September 20, 2013 the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Thai Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client would have been eligible to file a marriage based adjustment of status application but for the waiver.
The Thai Embassy eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On February 3, 2014, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS then issued a receipt and an I-612 approval notice on February 7, 2014. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file an adjustment of status application with her husband’s I-130 petition.