CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Persecution
NATIONALITY: Filipino
LOCATION: Crownpoint, NM
Our client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2018 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 U.S. citizen spouse’s I-130 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 standards. 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 went back to the Philippines based on his marriage in the U.S. His marriage is culturally and religiously forbidden in the Philippines. After he retained our firm, we filed a waiver request on a persecution basis. On September 2, 2022, the J-1 Waiver Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared an affidavit of 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 September 6, 2022, our office filed an I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommend this waiver for our client.
Eventually, the Department of State recommended a waiver for our client on September 9, 2023. Subsequently, the USCIS issued his I-612 approval notice on October 23, 2023.