CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Persecution
NATIONALITY: Filipino
LOCATION: NM
Our client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in February 2020 from the Philippines to work as a teacher. His J-1 visa made him subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to file an adjustment of status application based on his employer’s I-140 petition. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, he had to obtain a waiver first.
Unlike our other J-1 clients, our client could not pursue her waiver under the No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency (IGA). Moreover, our client could not pursue his J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standard. Nonetheless, our client could pursue a J-1 waiver under the persecution category since he believes that he will be persecuted based on his same-sex marital relationship with his current spouse.
Our client believed that he would be persecuted if he goes back to the Philippines based on his marriage in the U.S. His marriage is religiously forbidden in the Philippines. After he retained our firm, we filed a waiver request on a persecution basis. On June 24, 2022, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared an affidavit from our client, an extensive brief in support of our client’s J-1 waiver application, and other supporting documents to show that he will be persecuted in the Philippines if he goes back. On June 28, 2022, our office filed an I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommend this waiver since our client will be persecuted if our client needs to go back to the Philippines.
However, on May 10, 2023, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) and asked our client to submit more evidence to support his persecution claims. Our office prepared an extensive Response to the RFE application and submitted it on May 22, 2023. Eventually, the Department of State recommended a waiver for our client on June 12, 2023. Subsequently, the USCIS approved his I-612 waiver on August 1, 2023.