CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Persecution
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Espanola, NM
Our Filipina client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2018 to work as a teacher. Her visa made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to file an adjustment of status based on her employer’s I-140 petition. However, due to the requirements, she had to obtain a waiver first.
Our client could not pursue her waiver under the No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency. Nonetheless, our client pursued J-1 waiver under the persecution category since she would’ve been persecuted based on her political opinion.
After retaining our firm, we prepared a waiver request through a persecution basis. On March 20, 2023, the J-1 Waiver was filed to the Department of State. We prepared an affidavit of our client and other supporting documents for the waiver. On March 30, 2023, our office filed the I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue this waiver since our client would’ve been persecuted if she needed to go back to the Philippines.
The Department of State recommended the waiver for our client on July 19, 2024. Later, the USCIS issued her I-612 approval on August 1, 2024.