CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Kenyan
LOCATION: Ohio
Our client is from Kenya who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in 2004. She was later on placed in removal proceedings and she retained our office for legal representation. We filed her I-360 self-petition which was since considered prima facie approvable and is now awaiting adjudication. However, even if she gets the approved I-360 petition, she will not be able to adjust her status unless she gets a waiver of the 2-year foreign residence requirement, which she had from her J-1 program.
Our office filed a J-1 waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Kenyan Embassy in the United States. As mentioned in a previous success story, every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures and policies with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement. Our office contacted the Kenyan Embassy in D.C. to request a no objection statement. The Embassy requested several documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, a clearance letter from the J-1 program sponsor, clearance certificate from the HELB and KSCE in Kenya, and a letter of reason for obtaining the J-1 waiver, among others.
On November 21, 2011 the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Kenyan Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client is eligible to adjust pending approval of the I-360 petition.
On January 3, 2012 the Kenyan Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, who also sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On January 23, 2012, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS has receipted the fee and has issued an I-612 approval.
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Hi,
I was reading some of your success stories from your website regarding J1 waivers. Currently my wife is on J1 visa and we wanted to have it waived. We are from Kenya. She is currently writing her Masters in University of Washington and it requires part of the project to be in Kenya and back in the US.
We will experience economic hardship because she is on a student stipend only. I do not have a job offer in Kenya. She is expected to be here for the next 5years. Our J2 visa expires in September
I have an offer in US which will require change of status after the waiver.
Maurice
Thanks Maurice. Yes, feel free to call us anytime. We’ve done J-1 waivers for Kenyans in both the no obection statement and hardship routes.