CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Taiwanese
LOCATION: Rhode Island
Our Taiwanese client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa for her post-doctoral research program. Her her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. She wanted to file for adjustment of status as a derivative applicant of her husband’s employment-based I-140 based adjustment of status application. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first before she files her adjustment of status application in the United States.
After she retained our firm, we prepared and filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. Our office contacted the TECR Office in Washington D.C. to make sure we knew all the requirements needed for their office to issue a no objection statement. The Office requested numerous documents including a statement of reason for the waiver, employment letter, the applicant’s resume, a copy of her valid Taiwanese passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On September 15, 2015, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver based on the fact that our client would have been eligible to file an adjustment of status application but for the waiver.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client, and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On February 8, 2016, the Waiver Review Division issued a favorable recommendation based on the No Objection statement. The CIS then issued a receipt and an I-612 approval notice on February 24, 2016. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file her green card application in the United States without going back to Taiwan for 2 years.