CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Turkish
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
Our client is from Turkey who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in November 2014 to work as a post-doctoral researcher. She determined that she would like to apply for an adjustment of status based on a possible I-140 National Interest Waiver self-petition. However, she would not be able to adjust her status unless she obtained a waiver of the 2-year foreign residency program.
She retained our office on January 15, 2016. Thereafter, our office prepared filing a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Turkish Embassy in the United States. Every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures and policies with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement waiver. Our office contacted the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to pursue the waiver for our client. The Embassy requested several documents including a statement of reason for the waiver and Turkish National ID.
On January 19, 2016, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Turkish Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to adjust based on her marriage to her spouse.
Eventually, the Turkish Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On May 24, 2016, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On June 2, 2016, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement.