CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Hardship
NATIONALITY: Iraqi
LOCATION: Dearborn, MI
Our client came from Iraq as a J-1 scholar in 2014. He was subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client would like to file his adjustment of status application along with his I-140 NIW application; however, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, he had to obtain a waiver first.
Unlike our other J-1 clients, our client could not pursue his waiver under the No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency (IGA). Our client also received government funding for his research programs which made his case tougher for the No Objection Statement or IGA waiver route. Our client, though, would like to pursue his J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship. His US Citizen has medical hardships.
According to 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 February 13, 2020, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We prepared the 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 his U.S. citizen son’s medical conditions. On February 17, 2020, our office filed an I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client’s son would experience exceptional hardship if our client needs to go back to Iraq for two years.
Eventually, the USCIS approved his I-612 waiver on February 18, 2021. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, he can file his adjustment of status application along with his NIW I-140 self-petition.