CASE: J-1 Waiver of the Two-Year Foreign Residency Requirement, No Objection Statement
NATIONALITY: Thai
LOCATION: Dallas, TX
Our Thai client came to the U.S. on a J-1 Visa in November 1991, and his J-1 visa made him subject to the two-year foreign resident requirement. After completion of the J-1 program, he remained in the United States. His wife became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but our client could not file his adjustment of status application due to his two-year foreign residency requirement. He had to obtain a waiver first.
He contacted our office and retained our office in April 2017. After he retained our firm, we prepared and 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 reason for the waiver, a notarized copy of the marriage certificate, a notarized copy of his US citizen Wife’s US passport Biographic Page, a notarized copy of his valid Thai passport, and a copy of Form DS-3035.
On May 15, 2017, 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 based on the fact that 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 October 10, 2017, 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 January 29, 2018. Now that our client’s two-year foreign residency requirement is waived, he can file an adjustment of status application with his wife’s I-130 petition.