CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, Exceptional Hardship
NATIONALITY: Filipina
LOCATION: Haines City, FL
Our client came from the Philippines and came to the U.S. as a J-1 teacher. However, her J-1 status made she is subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. Our client would like to be petitioned for the H-1B by her employer; however, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
Unlike our other J-1 clients, our client could not pursue her waiver under No Objection Statement or Interest Government Agency (IGA) Her case pretty much impossible for the No Objection Statement or IGA waiver route. Our client, though, would like to pursue her J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship standard. In fact, our client’s U.S. citizen child is experiencing exceptional medical hardships.
According to 8 C.F.R. Section 212.7(c)(5), “an alien who is subject to the foreign residence requirement and who believes that compliance therewith would impose exceptional hardship upon her spouse or child who is a citizen of the United States… may apply for a waiver on Form I-612.”
Some of the factors in analyzing extreme hardship are as follows: age of the subject, family ties in the U.S. and abroad, length and residency in the U.S., health / medical conditions, conditions in the country of removal – economic and political, financial status – business and occupation, position in / ties to the community. Matter of Anderson, 16 I&N Dec. 596 (BIA 1978).
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through an exceptional hardship basis. On April 3, 2023, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. Thereafter, our office prepared affidavit of our client, extensive brief in support for our client’s J-1 waiver application, and other supporting documents. Our client provided us with extensive medical documents and doctor’s reports for her U.S. citizen child’s medical conditions. On April 6, 2023, our office filed I-612 application to the USCIS and asked for them to issue and recommends this waiver based on the fact that our client’s child would experience exceptional hardship if our client needs to go back to the Philippines for two years.
However, on July 5, 2024, the USCIS issued the Request for Evidence and requested our client to submit more documents to show the exceptional hardship to her US citizen child. Our office filed the Response to RFE on September 19, 2024. Eventually, the USCIS approved her I-612 waiver on January 16, 2025.