CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Indonesian
LOCATION: Providence, RI
Our Indonesian client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in June 2012. She came to the U.S. for her post-doctoral research program, and her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Her research and higher education enhanced her interest in the field, and she would like to further her future research and development projects through a possible National Interest Waiver application. However, since most of the research projects that interest her will take a longer time, she anticipates that most employers will eventually wish to petition her for an alternate form of visa such as H-1B. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first before she could change her current status in the United States.
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Indonesian Embassy in the United States. Our office contacted the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. to make sure we knew all the requirements needed for their office to issue a no objection statement. The Embassy requested nine different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, the applicant’s resume, a copy of her valid Indonesian passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On September 17, 2015, 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 would have been eligible to file a change of status application but for the waiver.
The Indonesian Embassy eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On November 16, 2015, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS then issued a receipt and an I-612 approval notice on December 21, 2015. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can be a beneficiary of other non-immigrant visa in the United States without going back to Indonesia for 2 years. She can also file an EB2 I-140 NIW Petition and be eligible for adjustment of status.