CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Persecution
NATIONALITY: Filipino
LOCATION: Corona, CA
Our Filipino client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in December 2020 to work as a teacher. His visa made him subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client wanted to file an adjustment of status based on his spouse’s I-130 petition. However, due to requirements, he had to obtain a waiver first.
Our client could not pursue his waiver under the No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency. Nonetheless, our client could pursue his waiver under the persecution category since he believed that he would’ve been persecuted based on his same sex marriage with his spouse. His marriage is religiously forbidden in the Philippines.
After retaining our firm, we filed a waiver through a persecution basis. On March 9, 2023, the J-1 Waiver was filed to the Department of State. We prepared an affidavit of our client and other supporting documents with the waiver. On March 20, 2023, our office filed an I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue this waiver since our client would be persecuted if he went back to the Philippines.
However, May 22, 2024, the USCIS issued a Request for Evidence and asked our client to submit more evidence to support the persecution claims. Our office prepared an extensive RFE and submitted it on June 20, 2024. The Department of State recommended the waiver for our client on July 12, 2024. Subsequently, the USCIS issued his I-612 approval on August 1, 2024.