CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Nigerian
LOCATION: Houston, TX
Our client is from Nigeria who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in October 2018 to pursue his student internship in New Mexico. After he finished his J-1 program, he remained in the United States. In April 2018, our client married his current U.S. citizen wife. However, won’t be able to adjust his status unless he gets a waiver of the 2-year foreign residency program.
Our prepared and filed the waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Nigerian Embassy in the United States. Every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures and policies with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement waiver. Our office promptly contacted the Nigerian Embassy in D.C. to pursue the waiver for our client. The Embassy requested several documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, the clearance letter from J-1 program sponsor, and a letter of reason for obtaining J-1 waiver.
On April 18, 2019, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Nigerian Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to adjust based on his marriage to U.S. citizen spouse.
Eventually, the Nigerian Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On June 28, 2019, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On July 30, 2019, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement. Now, our client can file I-485 adjustment of status application along with his wife’s I-130 petition.