CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Korean
LOCATION: Atlanta, GA
Our client is from South Korea who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2019 as an exchange student in Georgia. Her J-1 program made her subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. She wanted to change her status to F-1 or H-1B. However, before she changes her status, she has to get a waiver for her two-year foreign residency requirement.
Once retained, our office prepared and filed a waiver request through the No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Korean Embassy in the United States.
Attorney Sung Hee (Glen) Yu from our office contacted the Korean Consulate General Office in Atlanta to pursue the waiver for our client. The Consulate requested six different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, the applicant’s resume, a J-1 visa waiver confirmation application, and a letter of reason for obtaining the J-1 waiver. Most of those documents needed to be written in Korean, so Attorney Yu, a Korean himself, assisted our client in completing those documents.
On November 23, 2020, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Korean Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to change her status in the U.S.
The Korean Consulate General in Atlanta forwarded our client’s documents to the Korean Embassy in DC. After that, the Korean Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On March 8, 2021, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. Eventually, on March 22, 2021, the USCIS issued I-612 approval notice and waived our client’s 2 year foreign residency requirement.