CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Albuquerque, NM
Our client from the Philippines came to the U.S. as a J-1 teacher. Her J-1 status made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to be petitioned for an H-1B by her employer; however, due to the requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
Our client could not pursue her waiver under the No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency. Her case was almost impossible for the No Objection Statement or IGA waiver route. Our client decided to pursue her J-1 waiver based on the exceptional hardship standard, since her child is experiencing exceptional medical hardships.
After retaining our firm, we filed a waiver request on an exceptional hardship basis. On January 10, 2022, the J-1 Waiver Application was filed to the Department of State. After that, our office prepared an affidavit from our client, as well as an extensive brief with medical documents for her U.S. citizen child’s medical conditions. On January 13, 2022, our office filed an I-612 application to the USCIS and asked them to issue and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client’s child would experience exceptional hardship if our client needed to go back to the Philippines for two years.
The USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on January 16, 2024.