CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Malaysian
LOCATION: Boston, MA
Our Malaysian client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in November 2013. He came to the United States to work and get training, but his J-1 visa made him subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. His workand training program in the U.S. enhanced our client’s interest in his field, and he would like to gain employment in the U.S. beyond his J-1 term. His employer would like to file a petition for him to change his non-immigrant status from J-1 to L-1. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, he had to obtain a waiver first before he could change his current status in the United States.
After he retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Malaysian Embassy in the United States. Our office contacted the Malaysian 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 different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver.
On February 13, 2015, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Malaysian 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 change of status application but for the waiver.
The Malaysian Embassy eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. 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 August 17, 2015. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, he can be a beneficiary of other non-immigrant visa in the United States without going back to Malaysia for 2 years.