CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Turkish
LOCATION: Lincoln, NE
Our client is from Turkey who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in August 2017 to work as a researcher. She became a tenured track professor and her school would like to petition her H-1B visa and green card application. However, she will not be able to adjust her status unless she gets a waiver for the 2-year foreign residency program.
She retained our office on March 20, 2019. Thereafter, our office promptly prepared for 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 promptly 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 April 4, 2019, 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 will be a beneficiary of H-1B and green card application.
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 June 4, 2019, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On June 21, 2019, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement.