CASE: J-2 Waiver of Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement Post-Divorce
NATIONALITY: Chinese
LOCATION: Bellevue, WA
Our client is a citizen of China who came to the U.S. on a J-2 Visa in September 2014. She came with her husband who held a J-1 Visa as a researcher. Both were subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement.
She got divorced from her husband in 2017 and changed her status to F-1. Our client wanted to be petitioned for H-1B by her prospective employer; however, she cannot do it unless she fulfills the two-year foreign residency requirement or obtains a waiver.
She retained our firm to do her J-2 waiver. On May 20, 2022, the J-2 Waiver (DS-3035) was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the DOS to be an interested government agency and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client was divorced from the J-1 visa holder. Eventually, on June 7, 2022, the DOS recommended to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that our client be granted a waiver. The USCIS issued the I-612 waiver approval notice on July 19, 2022.