CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Canadian
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA
Our client is from Canada who came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa in January 2014 to work as a short-term scholar at one of the national laboratories in the United States. Currently, she is in the U.S. with her F-1 status and is pursuing her Ph.D. program. With our legal assistance, her husband got his I-140 self-petition approval (National Interest Waiver Category) in February 2019. They were about to file their adjustment of status applications based on the approved I-140 petition; however, our client would like to double-check whether she was subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement for that J-1 program.
Upon our client’s request, our office checked with the State Department by filing an advisory opinion request. According to the Department of State, “if you are not sure whether the two year foreign residence applies to you, you may make a written request for an advisory opinion for the applicability of the residence requirement to your situation.” Our office promptly filed this advisory opinion request on January 16, 2019 to the Waiver Review Division of the Department of State.
Unfortunately, the decision of the Department of State stated that our client is subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. After our office received this decision from the Department of State, our office promptly prepared for filing a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Canadian Embassy in the United States.
On April 1, 2019, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Canadian Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to adjust with an approved I-140 if she obtains the waiver.
Thereafter, the Canadian Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On May 15, 2019, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS has issued an I-612 approval notice on May 25, 2019. Now, our client can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s approved I-140 petition.