CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Korean
LOCATION: New York City, NY
Our South Korea client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in January 2009. She came to the U.S. to participate in an international internship program in New York City. Upon completion of her J-1 internship program, she went back to South Korea in 2010.
While our client was in the United States for her internship, she met her U.S. citizen fiancé. Later, they got engaged and her fiancé filed an I-129F fiancée visa petition on behalf of her in January 2011. In May 2011, the I-129F petition was approved, and the related application materials were forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to conduct our client’s fiancée visa interview. In October 2011, our client had her fiancée visa interview at the Embassy. During the interview, the Consulate officer told her that he cannot adjudicate the fiancée visa unless our client fulfills the two-year foreign residency requirement or obtain a waiver. Although her visa was not denied, the Consulate officer told her that he would hold the decision for visa approval until client gets a waiver of the two-year foreign residency requirement.
Our client and her fiancé contacted our office in early December of 2011. Upon consultation, they retained us in December 2, 2011. 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 New York City, NY to pursue the waiver for our client. The Consular office 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 December 6, 2011 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 get a K-1 Fiancé Visa, and will be eligible to adjust in the United States after her K-1 admission and the subsequent marriage to her U.S. Citizen fiancé.
The Korean Consulate General in New York forwarded our client’s documents to the Korean Embassy in DC. Soon after, the Korean Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On February 2, 2012, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS has receipted the fee and will issue an I-612 approval shortly.
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