CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Turkish
LOCATION: Connecticut
Our client is from Turkey who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in 2015 as a research scholar. In September 2018, she married U.S. citizen spouse. She wishes to apply for a waiver of the two year foreign residency requirement so that she can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition.
She retained our office on September 26, 2018. Thereafter, our office promptly prepared for filing a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Turkish Embassy in the United States. Every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures and policies with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement waiver. Our office promptly contacted the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to pursue the waiver for our client. The Embassy requested several documents including a statement of reason for the waiver and Turkish National ID.
On October 2, 2018, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Turkish Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client wants to adjust her status based on her marriage to U.S. citizen spouse.
Eventually, the Turkish Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On January 17, 2019, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On January 31, 2019, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement.