CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Douglas, AZ
Our client came from the Philippines as a J-1 teacher. She was subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. She wanted to apply for a green card based on her marriage to her US citizen spouse, however she had to get a waiver first to be eligible.
Based on 8 C.F.R. Section 212.7(c)(5), “an alien who is subject to the foreign residence requirement and who believes that compliance therewith would impose exceptional hardship upon her spouse or child who is a citizen of the United States… may apply for a waiver on Form I-612.”
Some of the factors in analyzing extreme hardship are as follows: age of the subject, family ties in the U.S. and abroad, length and residency in the U.S., health / medical conditions, conditions in the country of removal – economic and political, financial status – business and occupation, position in / ties to the community. Matter of Anderson, 16 I&N Dec. 596 (BIA 1978).
On October 7, 2019, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared an affidavit for our client, an extensive brief in support for our client’s J-1 waiver application, and other supporting documents. Our client provided us with extensive medical documents and doctor’s reports for her U.S. citizen husband’s medical condition. On October 16, 2019, our office filed the I-612 application to the USCIS and asked them to issue and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client’s husband would experience exceptional hardship in the scenarios of separation and relocation. .
On January 16, 2020, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) and requested our client to submit more hardship evidence. Our office prepared the response and filed an extensive Response to RFE on March 18, 2020.
Eventually, the USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on January 22, 2021. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition in the United States.