CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Extreme Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Albuquerque, NM
Our client from the Philippines came to the U.S. as a J-1 teacher. However, her J-1 status subjected her to the two-year foreign residency requirement. Our client wanted her employer to petition for an H-1B; however, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she first had to obtain a waiver.
Unlike our other J-1 clients, she could not pursue her waiver under a No Objection Statement or Interested Government Agency basis. Instead, our client decided to pursue her J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standards, as her child was experiencing medical hardships.
After retaining our firm, we filed a waiver request based on exceptional hardship. On June 16, 2023, the J-1 waiver request was filed with the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared our client’s affidavit, extensive briefs, and other supporting documents. She provided us with extensive medical documentation for her child’s medical conditions. On June 29, 2023, our office filed an I-612 application with USCIS, requesting that they issue the waiver, as our client’s child would experience exceptional hardship if she had to return to the Philippines for two years.
However, on September 30, 2023, USCIS issued a Request for Evidence, asking our client to submit more documents demonstrating the exceptional hardship to her child. Our office filed the response to the RFE on December 2, 2023. USCIS then approved her I-612 waiver on March 7, 2024.