CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Korean
LOCATION: Ohio
Our client is from South Korea who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in 2010 to pursue her research program. Her J-1 program made her subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement. After her J-1 program was completed, she changed her status to F-1 and continued her Ph.D. studies in the United States. While she was studying, she met her U.S. citizen husband. Her husband intended to file I-130 petition for her along with her I-485 adjustment of status application. However, she has to get a waiver for her two-year foreign residency requirement before she adjusts her status in the United States.
Our office was retained on June 16, 2015. Once retained, our office promptly 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 June 24, 2015 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 file an adjustment of status application.
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 January 22, 2016, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. Eventually, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval on February 1, 2016.