CASE: Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status
CLIENT: Turkish
LOCATION: Reno, NV
Our client is from Turkey who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2016 as an exchange student. In October 2019, she married her U.S. citizen spouse. She wished to apply for a waiver of the two year foreign residency requirement so that she can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition.
She retained our office on January 13, 2020. Thereafter, our office prepared for the waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Turkish Embassy. Every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement waiver. Our office contacted the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to pursue the waiver for our client. The Embassy requested several documents including a statement of reason for the waiver and Turkish National ID.
On February 5, 2020, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Turkish Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client wants to adjust her status based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen spouse.
Eventually, the Turkish Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On June 15, 2020, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On July 13, 2020, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement.
Once her J-1 waiver was approved, our client retained our office again for her adjustment of status application. Our firm prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and I-485Adjustment of Status Application on July 3, 2020. Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits all came on time. Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients through conference calls. On May 14, 2021, our client was interviewed at the Reno, Nevada USCIS office. The interview went well, and eventually, on May 28, 2021, her green card application was approved.