CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY:Korean
LOCATION: Ohio
Our client is from South Korea who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa six years ago. She came to the U.S. to work at her internship program. Before her J-1 visa was expired, she managed to get an F-1 visa and continuously pursued her studies in Ohio. According to her DS-2019, she was subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement, meaning you would have to go back to your home country for two-years before you can apply for permanent residency and some non-immigrant visas.
Last year, she got married to her U.S. citizen husband and later on consulted with our firm for her adjustment of status (obtaining a green card). Her situation was unique because her passport’s visa page states that she is not subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. However, her DS-2019 was clearly marked with the two-year foreign residency requirement.
To clarify the uncertainty, our office checked with the State Department by filing an advisory opinion request. According to the Department of State, “if you are not sure whether the two year foreign residence applies to you, you may make a written request for an advisory opinion for the applicability of the residence requirement to your situation.” Our office promptly filed this advisory opinion request on July 27, 2010 to the Waiver Review Division of the Department of State.
Unfortunately, the decision of the Department of State stated that our client is subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. After our office received this decision from the Department of State, our office promptly prepared for filing a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Korean Embassy in the United States.
As mentioned in a previous blog article, every country’s Embassy maintains different procedures and policies with regard to the J-1 No Objection Statement waiver. Attorney Sung Hee (Glen) Yu from our office promptly contacted the Korean Consulate General Office in Chicago to pursue the waiver for our client. The Consulate 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 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 November 24, 2010 the J-1 Waiver 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 adjust if she obtains the waiver.
The Korean Consulate General in Chicago promptly forwarded our client’s documents to the Korean Embassy in DC. On January 18, 2011, the Korean Embassy issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On January 28, 2011, 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. Now, our client can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition.
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