CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Indonesian
LOCATION: Van Buren, AR
Our client is from Indonesia who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in February 2001. He came to the U.S. for work training, but his J-1 program is subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. After his J-1 program was completed, he remained in the United States. In October 2019, our client married his U.S. Citizen wife. He is eligible to get a green card through his marriage to a U.S. citizen; however, before we file his I-130/I-485 application simultaneously, he has to get a waiver of his two-year foreign residency requirement. In order to get a waiver of his two-year foreign residency requirement, he consulted with our office and later decided to retain our office on November 6, 2019.
Once retained, our office promptly prepared for filing a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Indonesian Embassy in the United States. Our office and our client promptly contacted the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. to pursue the waiver for our client. The Embassy requested nine different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, the applicant’s resume, a copy of valid Indonesian passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035 application.
On November 19, 2019, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Indonesian Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to file marriage based adjustment of status.
The Indonesian Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On January 8, 2020, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS has receipted the fee and issued an I-612 approval notice for our client’s waiver of two-year foreign residency program on February 26, 2020. Now, our client can file his adjustment of status application along with I-130 petition.