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 June 2017 to work as a trainee. In September 2019, he married his U.S. citizen spouse. He wanted to file an adjustment of status application; however, his J-1 visa made him subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, he had to obtain a waiver first before he files his adjustment of status application in the U.S.
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.
On February 4, 2020, 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 New York to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client would have been eligible to file an adjustment 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 April 1, 2021.