CASE: J-1 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Turkish
LOCATION: Bryan, TX
Our client is from Turkey who came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in January 2012 as a research scholar. In June 2019, she married her U.S. citizen spouse. She wishes to apply for a waiver of the two year foreign residency requirement so that she can file her adjustment of status application along with her husband’s I-130 petition.
Once she retained our office, we 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 June 17, 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 wants to adjust her status based on her marriage to U.S. citizen spouse.
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 July 25, 2019, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. On August 13, 2019, the USCIS issued an I-612 approval notice for the waiver of our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement.