CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Extreme Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: North Myrtle Beach, SC
Our client from the Philippines came to the U.S. as a J-1 teacher. However, her J-1 status made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to file her adjustment of status application along with her US citizen spouse’s I-130 petition; however, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she 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. Her case was pretty much impossible for the No Objection Statement or IGA waiver route. Our client wanted to pursue her J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standards because her U.S. citizen spouse was experiencing exceptional medical hardships.
After she retained our firm, we filed a waiver request on an exceptional hardship basis. On January 24, 2022, the J-1 Waiver Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared all necessary supporting documents. Our client provided extensive medical documents and doctor’s reports for her spouse’s medical conditions. On January 27, 2022, our office filed the I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommend this waiver since our client’s spouse would experience exceptional hardship if our client needed to go back to the Philippines for two years. The USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on December 28, 2023.