CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Thai
LOCATION: Park City, Utah
Our Thai client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in November 2021. She came to the U.S. for her internship, and her J-1 visa made her subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement. In August 2022, our client married his U.S. Citizen husband and she wanted to apply for permanent residency. However, due to the two-year foreign residency requirement, she had to obtain a waiver first.
After retaining our firm, we filed a waiver request through a No Objection Statement (NOS) from the Thai Embassy in the United States. Our office contacted the Thai Embassy in Washington D.C. to make sure we knew all the requirements needed for their office to issue a no-objection statement. The Embassy requested several different documents including a statement of the reason for the waiver, a notarized copy of the marriage certificate, a notarized copy of his US citizen husband’s US passport Biographic Page, a notarized copy of her valid Thai passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On November 3, 2022, the J-1 Waiver (Form DS-3035) Application was filed to the Department of State. We also sent a request to the Thai Embassy to issue a No Objection Statement and recommend this waiver since our client would have been eligible to file a marriage-based adjustment of status application but for the waiver.
The Thai Embassy eventually issued a No Objection Statement for our client and sent this letter to the State Department’s Waiver Review Division. On March 14, 2023, 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 April 12, 2023. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, she can file an adjustment of status application with her husband’s I-130 petition.