CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Indonesian
LOCATION: Ohio
Our Indonesian client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in May 2016. She came to the U.S. for an internship, and her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. In March 2017 our client married his U.S. Citizen husband and she wanted to apply for permanent residency. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Indonesian Embassy in the United States. Our office contacted the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C. to make sure we knew all the requirements needed for their office to issue a no objection statement. The Embassy requested nine different documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, the applicant’s resume, a copy of her valid Indonesian passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On March 22, 2017, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Indonesian Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client would have been eligible to file a marriage based adjustment of status application but for the waiver.
The Indonesian Embassy eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On August 7, 2017, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS then issued a receipt and an I-612 approval notice on October 20, 2017. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file adjustment of status application with her husband I-130 petition.