CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Exceptional Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Warwick, ND
Our client, a teacher from the Philippines, entered the U.S. on a J-1 visa. This status made her subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement, which meant she couldn’t change to another visa status, like an H-1B visa, without first returning to her home country for two years or obtaining a waiver.
She wanted her employer to petition for an H-1B visa, but she first needed a waiver. Unlike some of our other J-1 clients, she couldn’t pursue a waiver through a “No Objection Statement” or “Interested Government Agency (IGA)” due to her specific situation. This left her with a more challenging, though not impossible, path: the exceptional hardship waiver.
The U.S. government recognizes that certain circumstances can justify a waiver. According to 8 C.F.R. Section 212.7(c)(5), a J-1 visa holder can apply for a waiver on Form I-612 if they can prove that returning to their home country would cause “exceptional hardship” to a U.S. citizen spouse or child.
To determine exceptional hardship, immigration officials consider various factors, including the age of the U.S. citizen relative, family ties in the U.S. and abroad, the length of residency in the U.S., and any medical or health conditions. In this case, our client’s U.S. citizen child was experiencing significant medical hardship, which became the cornerstone of our argument.
After retaining our firm, we immediately began preparing her waiver request. We first filed the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application with the Department of State on March 7, 2024. Subsequently, on March 11, 2024, we filed the I-612 application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Our application was robust and included a detailed affidavit from our client, a comprehensive brief in support of her waiver, and extensive supporting documents. Most importantly, we provided a wealth of medical records and doctor’s reports to substantiate the exceptional hardship her U.S. citizen child would face if our client were forced to return to the Philippines for two years.
On June 13, 2025, USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE), asking for more documentation to demonstrate the exceptional hardship. Our office prepared and submitted a detailed response on June 26, 2025.
Finally, on September 25, 2025, USCIS approved the I-612 waiver, a testament to the strength of our client’s case and the thoroughness of the documentation. She is now able to proceed with her employer’s H-1B petition without having to satisfy the two-year foreign residency requirement.