CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Malaysian
LOCATION: California
Our Malaysian client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2015 to work as a post-doctoral researcher. In August 2018, our client was offered a position as a tenured-track assistant professor at a state university. Her prospective employer would like to file an I-129 (H-1B) petition for her to change her status from J-1 to H-1B. However, her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first before she could change her current status in the United States.
After she 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 August 10, 2018, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Malaysian Consulate General Office in LA 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 March 28, 2019.