CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Extreme Hardship
NATIONALITY: Indonesia
LOCATION: New Jersey
Our client came from Indonesia in 2007 with a valid J-1 visa. She got her J-1 status as a student for her graduate studies, and she was a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for her studies. Her J-1 status made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Once her J-1 program was completed, she remained in the United States and pursued her Ph.D. program under F-1 status. Later, she married her current U.S. citizen husband and became a mother of a U.S. citizen child. Our client would like to file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition; however, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
Unlike our other J-1 clients, our client could not pursue her waiver under No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency (IGA). As mentioned above, our client also received government funding (Fulbright Scholarship) for her studies which made her case tougher for the No Objection Statement or IGA waiver route. Our client, though, would like to pursue her J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standard. In fact, our client’s U.S. citizen daughter is experiencing exceptional medical hardships.
According to 8 C.F.R. Section 212.7(c)(5), “an alien who is subject to the foreign residence requirement and who believes that compliance therewith would impose exceptional hardship upon her spouse or child who is a citizen of the United States… may apply for a waiver on Form I-612.”
Some of the factors in analyzing extreme hardship are as follows: age of the subject, family ties in the U.S. and abroad, length and residency in the U.S., health / medical conditions, conditions in the country of removal – economic and political, financial status – business and occupation, position in / ties to the community. Matter of Anderson, 16 I&N Dec. 596 (BIA 1978).
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through an exceptional hardship basis. On November 24, 2015, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared affidavit of our client, extensive brief in support for our client’s J-1 waiver application, and other supporting documents. Our client provided us with extensive medical documents and doctor’s reports for her U.S. citizen daughter’s medical conditions. On December 17, 2015, our office filed I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommends this waiver based on the fact that our client’s daughter would experience exceptional hardship if our client needs to go back to Indonesia for two years.
Eventually, the USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on November 28, 2016. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition in the United States.