In this Article Kaushik talks about the J-1 exceptional hardship waiver; Here you will learn about two recent successful case studies that our team of immigration attorneys successfully managed these J-1 Visa hardship waivers, approved by USCIS.
J-1 Exceptional Hardship Waivers: Hardship to Children
Kaushik addresses hardship to children. You’ll want to learn about these hardships if you are married and have a spouse. The different aspects of hardship are also addressed for nationals from two different countries. In particular, the case studies refer to someone from Egypt and someone from south Asia.
Generally speaking, when analyzing these hardships for J-1 Waivers, they can be universal depending upon your country of origin.
Exceptional Hardship and J-1 Waivers
Suppose you entered the U.S. on a J-1 Visa, you may be subject to the two-year home residency requirement. According to the U.S. Department of State, some exchange visitors with J-1 visas are subject to a two-year home-country physical presence requirement. In addition, it requires you to return to your home country for at least two years after your exchange visitor program. This requirement is part of U.S. law, in the Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212(e). If you cannot return home for two years, you must apply for a waiver. The Department of Homeland Security must approve your waiver before you can change status or receive a visa in specific categories.
Not everyone who enters the U.S. on a J-1 Waiver is subject to the two-year home residency requirement. If you are subjected, then you will need a waiver. There are different types of waivers. For example, there is the no-objection waiver. There is also an interested government agency waiver, and there is the exceptional hardship waiver. In addition, many physicians apply for the Conrad 30 waiver as part of the interested government agencies.
This may be a good opportunity for you if you don’t want to apply for a no-objection waiver. This could be the case if your country’s not willing to issue a no-objection statement or you don’t qualify, such as being a physician for the no-objection waiver. You may not want to apply for the Conrad 30 waiver because you may not want to work in an underserved area for three years.
It is cases like this which are most indicated for an exceptional hardship waiver.
Do you Qualify for a Hardship Waiver?
So you think you qualify for the J1 exceptional hardship waiver or you’re interested in knowing more about it, but how do you qualify?
Let’s look at the basic requirements. First of all, the basic requirement is that you have a U.S. citizen spouse, child, a permanent resident child or permanent resident spouse. The J-1 Visa waiver differs from the I-601A waiver, where you would have to have a U.S. citizen parent or lawful permanent resident parent as a qualifying relative. That’s something that’s interesting to know, maybe a little geeky for the immigration lawyer to know, but something that can also be practical for you. Now let’s dive into how we got these cases approved, and how we argued extreme hardship.
First Success Story: A National from Egypt
The first success story is about a client who was from Egypt. In this situation, they have a U.S. citizen child with a health condition. One of the hardship arguments that we were able to make was that the child had respiratory diseases. Since the child had respiratory infections, this could be adversely affected if they were to go back to Egypt.
Also, they had abnormal newborn screening as well, so because of the fact that if their child had to relocate to Egypt, the child would be adversely affected and subject to extreme hardship because Egypt does not have adequate medical coverage. On the other hand, the child has adequate health care and coverage here in the United States. That would be a form of extreme hardship, and in this situation, the relocation of the family would force the child to relocate to Egypt. The child doesn’t have the opportunity to choose where to stay because entirely dependent upon the parents and their choices.
What’s important to note with J-1 exceptional hardship waivers is that you must prove the extreme hardship caused by relocating to your home country. In this situation, the children depend upon what the parents do.
The Immigration Attorneys appointed to this case successfully argued that this would affect the ideal development and mental health as the child grows. Going back to Egypt, mental health would be affected negatively and cause exceptional hardship. Another condition that we also argued was that Egypt is inherently a dangerous country to live in, especially for U.S. citizens. Then the job prospects for the parent would be affected as well because the job prospects in Egypt were inferior compared to what they are here.
The team made an extreme hardship waiver argument by combining all of these arguments and got the case approved. We are so happy that this family could continue to stay in the U.S. and not have their life adversely affected and face disruption and hardship. Our Immigration Attorneys are dedicated professionals who love this type of work and enjoy helping people like you. I want to continue sharing how we got our next case approved.
First Success Story: J-2 Visa Waiver Approval for Client from South-East Asia
This success story is about a client who is from south-east Asia. The spouse is on a J-2 visa. The principal was on a J-1 visa, and the child was in elementary school here in the U.S.
The Difficulties due to Economic and Political Situations
Our Immigration Attorneys here at the Ranchod Law Group argued several different economic and political situations.
Political Turbulence and Inflation
In studying this case, one of the first things, we highlighted as key issues were political turbulence and high inflation in the home country. If this family were to relocate back to their country, such a relocation would cause exceptional hardship to the child.
Exceptional Hardship Caused by Many Factors
Our research concluded that this family would almost certainly face a critical shortage of daily necessities. Day-to-day living would subject them to a form of hardship. There’s also a humanitarian crisis occurring and a lack of access to medical care and medicines. Such a lack contributed to the exceptional hardship arguments as well. Then, there was also the absence of clean water and food. Finally, the lack of modern infrastructure in the country also contributed to building our case of extreme hardship. So with all of these factors combined, we were able to make an extreme hardship waiver argument.
By combining all these arguments, Our team of immigration attorneys built a solid case for this hardship waiver. Taken separately, they would not be exceptional hardship, but by combining them, we made the argument and proved extreme hardship.
Another Extreme Hardship Waiver Approval
In summary, child safety, health, education development, and infrastructure were all concurrent factors that created hardship. We documented all the facts, made the arguments, and provided supporting evidence to demonstrate a situation of extreme hardship.
Learn how we can help you, Contact us today
Contact our office and learn from our immigration attorneys if you qualify for a hardship waiver. Every case is different, some cases qualify, some don’t so give us a call, and we can help educate you and discuss your case in detail.