hi everybody today I will answer one of the most common questions that people ask me why did you not apply for a waiver despite having an American child that way you did not have to go back to the Philippines I will answer that question and more and hopefully this will give you some insights as regards this topic in this video I will talk about first what is a two-year home residency requirement second what is a waiver third what will qualify as reasons for a waiver fourth what happens if I file a waiver and lastly why did I not file a waiver application if you have not subscribed to my channel yet I invite you to do so I have lots of videos already and whatever questions you have in mind about teaching and living in the US I most likely already have a video about that so make sure to head on to my playlists I also have a Facebook page where you can follow me there we could chat and you can join me during my Facebook live I also post lots of other information that are not necessarily A YouTube thing okay let's get into it first what is a two-year home residency requirement some exchange visitors with J-1 visas are required to a two-year Home Country physical presence requirement it requires you to return home 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 212e in case you are a J1 Visa holder currently in the US and you are not sure if you are subject to the 212 e requirement you can go ahead and check your Visa or your DS 2019 there's a section there that will tell you if you are required to go home second what is a waiver okay so you are at the end of your visitor Exchange program and if you cannot return or do not want to return home for two years you must apply for a waiver the Department of Homeland Security must prove your waiver before you can change status in the United States or receive a Visa in certain categories this waiver if approved will mean that you do not have to go back to your home country and stay there for two years this means that you can continue to stay in the US and work if you want third what will qualify as reasons for a waiver an exchange visitor May request the two-year home residency requirement be waived only on the following basis first is the no objection statement or NOS this is a statement from The Exchange visitors home country that has no objection to the waiver second request for waiver made by an interested U. S government agency third fear of persecution on account of race religion or political opinion fourth exceptional hardship to the U.
S citizen or permanent resident spouse or child of the exchange visitor and fifth interest of the state agency but this one only applies to alien Physicians the no objection statement or NOS used to be the easiest one to obtain for Filipinos it used to be automatic if you have an American child or children or if you are married to an American citizen in this way this is the shortest one to process also the cheapest one to process you only need to prove that you have an American child so you will just turn in birth certificate including the forms that they have for applying for this kind of waiver or if you're married to American citizen then you just have to turn in your marriage certificate but post-pandemic a lot has changed this is no longer automatic and the EVP no longer entertains waiver application on this basis there is another way to apply for an NOS but it's a longer process for the details please go over to the website of EVP because I'm not going to cover that in this video I have the link in the description box below for for other nationalities I would also advise you to check out your government agency that is over this process as each country has a different rule on the NOS approval fourth what happens if I file a waiver if you apply for a waiver make sure to time this process correctly once an exchange visitor applies for and receives a waiver recommendation from the Department of State they will no longer be eligible to extend their J-1 status and travel may be inadvisable therefore you will want to have another plan in place such as sponsorship for H1B Visa status once you receive a favorable recommendation from the Department of State if you do not have an H1B Visa sponsor yet you have to make sure to apply for a tourist visa so that when your DS 2019 has expired you can still legally stay in the US while waiting for the result of your waiver application however you can no longer work legally since a tourist visa it's not a working Visa also make sure that you apply this in secret do not tell your Visa sponsor or your friends or your employer about it sometimes though especially if your current employer would like you to stay with them and they are willing to sponsor your H1B Visa then they will help you keep the secrets so to speak most Visa sponsors will terminate your program if they find out that you're applying or have applied for a waiver so it's kind of like a fair ticket business so you once you have decided to apply for a waiver make sure that you are 100 sure about it and that you will really see it through because there are so many documentations forms for you to complete when you apply for favor once you have applied for a waiver and suppose it was not granted this means that you have to leave the us as you will be out of status fifth why did I not file a waiver application okay so I kind of already stated the reason why based on the accept multiple graphs for the waiver application if the rule has not changed as regards applying for the NOS then I would definitely have applied and 100 the waiver would have been granted and I would not have to go back to the Philippines and I could have just continued a work in the US but like I said having an American child or spouse as a basis for the waiver application is no longer entertained in the Philippines it's still being entertained in other countries though again check your conscience Agency for this one I was then left with using exceptional hardship to the U. S citizen or permanent resident spouse or child of the exchange visitor as my ground for my waiver application the hardship must be attributed to a U.
