CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Extreme Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Dunseith, ND
Our client came from the Philippines and entered the U.S. as a J-1 teacher. Her J-1 status made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to be petitioned for an H-1B by her employer; however, due to the 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 (IGA) routes. She wanted to pursue her J-1 waiver since our client’s U.S. citizen child is experiencing exceptional medical hardships.
After retaining our firm, we filed a waiver request through the exceptional hardship basis. On June 21, 2022, the J-1 Waiver Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared all supporting documents. Our client provided us with extensive medical documents for her U.S. citizen child’s medical conditions. On June 24, 2022, our office filed the I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to recommend this waiver since our client’s child would experience exceptional hardships if our client needed to go back to the Philippines for two years.
The USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on February 26, 2024.