CASE: I-130/I-485 – Marriage Based Adjustment of Status
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Lake Wales, FL
Our client, a teacher from the Philippines, came to the U.S. under J-1 status. This status subjected her to the two-year foreign residency requirement. She wished to file her adjustment of status application concurrently with her U.S. citizen spouse’s I-130 Petition for Alien Relative. However, due to the residency requirement, she first needed to obtain a waiver.
Unlike many of our other J-1 clients, she was unable to pursue the waiver through a No Objection Statement or Interested Government Agency (IGA) route, as her case was unsuitable for those options. Therefore, our client decided to pursue a J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standards, as her U.S. citizen spouse is experiencing significant medical hardships.
According to 8 C.F.R. § 212.7(c)(5), “an alien who is subject to the foreign residence requirement and who believes that compliance therewith would impose exceptional hardship upon her spouse or child who is a citizen of the United States… may apply for a waiver on Form I-612.”
Factors considered when analyzing extreme hardship include: the age of the applicant, family ties in the U.S. and abroad, length of residency in the U.S., health/medical conditions, economic and political conditions in the country of removal, financial status (business and occupation), and community ties. Matter of Anderson, 16 I&N Dec. 596 (BIA 1978).
After retaining our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request based on exceptional hardship. The J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed with the Department of State on January 9, 2023. Subsequently, our office prepared an affidavit for our client, an extensive supporting legal brief, and other documentation. The client provided us with comprehensive medical documentation and doctor’s reports regarding her spouse’s medical conditions. On January 12, 2023, our office filed the Form I-612 application with USCIS, requesting a favorable recommendation for the waiver on the basis that her spouse would experience exceptional hardship if the client were required to return to the Philippines for two years.
On February 8, 2024, USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE), asking our client to submit more evidence of hardship for her husband. Our office prepared and filed the response to the RFE on April 22, 2024. USCIS eventually approved her I-612 waiver on May 2, 2025.
Once the J-1 waiver was approved, our client retained our office again for the adjustment of status process. Our firm prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and Adjustment of Status Application on September 16, 2024.
The subsequent process proceeded smoothly, and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits were all issued in a timely manner. We thoroughly prepared our clients for the interview through conference calls. On September 23, 2025, our client was interviewed at the Tampa, FL USCIS office. The interview went well, and her green card application was approved the following day, on September 24, 2025.