2019 J1 WAIVER TIMELINE - New Applicants

[heonss 19]

On 6/8/2020 at 2:18 AM, heonss said:

how long did it take for the no objection letter to show up for you guys? Mine which the embassy sent on 30th of April has not showed up yet. Actually everything else i sent in the middle of February showed up with the11th of May time stamp without the no objection letter.

No objection letter finally showed up.

Timeline:

NOL sent on April 30th, 2020

The other documents sent on Feb 18th, 2020

There is still a long way to go to get FR, but I’m happy I can finally check all the documents received.

[anu55 1]

On 6/11/2020 at 4:22 PM, anu55 said:

 Edited to add further updates: 

 

Letter from DoS informing of favorable recommendation: Mailed on May 28, received in mail on June 6 

Case Received by USCIS: June 6 

Form I-797 C/USCIS case receipt notice: received in mail on June 8 

Case approved by USCIS: June 11

Letter received in mail: June 16 

 

 

 

[PRIG 2]

On 5/22/2020 at 10:09 AM, postdoc4life said:

Just wanted to share my timeline. Got my favorable recommendation today! Hope this helps you all out there.

 

 

It looks like they took almost 5 months to give favorable recommendation. Did you contacted the local congressman or senator to intervene? or anything to expedite the proces.. or just let the process to happen by itself. I'm left with just few months away form my J1 end. my application was received after 3 months on May 22 2020. NOS is still not received. Do you have any suggestion? 

[Yasi-66 0]

Hi All,

 

Did anyone get FR form DoS during June?

[Mat_A 0]

On 6/20/2020 at 4:12 PM, Yasi-66 said:

Hi All,

 

Did anyone get FR form DoS during June?

 

 

Yup, 

FR appeared online on the 1st of June 

Letter from DoS informing of favorable recommendation: Mailed on 15th June, received in mail on June 19th 

Case Received by USCIS: June 15 

Form I-797 C/USCIS case receipt notice: received in mail on June 22

 

Awaiting case approval and notice 

[Yasi-66 0]

5 hours ago, Mat_A said:

Yup, 

FR appeared online on the 1st of June 

Letter from DoS informing of favorable recommendation: Mailed on 15th June, received in mail on June 19th 

Case Received by USCIS: June 15 

Form I-797 C/USCIS case receipt notice: received in mail on June 22

 

Awaiting case approval and notice 

Congratulation!!! Hope you get the approval soon!

 

May I ask, when you sent your application? 

[Mat_A 0]

37 minutes ago, Yasi-66 said:

Congratulation!!! Hope you get the approval soon!

 

May I ask, when you sent your application? 

i hope so too. not sure where we all stand with the Executive order.... 

my application was received by the DoS on the 25th of March. So it took some time! 

[J1toH1 4]

Did anyone ever contact DOS by phone? If so, could your please share a contact number. My wife has a new DS that was generated after she submitted the waiver application and the international office told us to send a copy of the new DS along with a cover letter to DOS. But, we are not sure if we should send it to St. Louis or Washington DC. We were wondering if we could get a quick response by a phone call and do accordingly. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Veronikac 15]

5 minutes ago, J1toH1 said:

Did anyone ever contact DOS by phone? If so, could your please share a contact number. My wife has a new DS that was generated after she submitted the waiver application and the international office told us to send a copy of the new DS along with a cover letter to DOS. But, we are not sure if we should send it to St. Louis or Washington DC. We were wondering if we could get a quick response by a phone call and do accordingly. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I tried to contact DOS once by phone but I was told that there is no phone number for DOS waiver cases and the only way to contact DOS because of the waiver is the general email. Was the case already received by the Washington office and you can see the status of the application online? You can find this on the DOS official website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/study/exchange/waiver-of-the-exchange-visitor/exchange-waiver-faqs.html)

The address listed in the Step 5 is following:

Waiver Review Division
U.S. Department of State
CA/VO/DO/W
SA-17, Floor 11
Washington, DC 20522-1711

 

[J1toH1 4]

1 hour ago, Veronikac said:

I tried to contact DOS once by phone but I was told that there is no phone number for DOS waiver cases and the only way to contact DOS because of the waiver is the general email. Was the case already received by the Washington office and you can see the status of the application online? You can find this on the DOS official website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/study/exchange/waiver-of-the-exchange-visitor/exchange-waiver-faqs.html)

The address listed in the Step 5 is following:

Waiver Review Division
U.S. Department of State
CA/VO/DO/W
SA-17, Floor 11
Washington, DC 20522-1711

 

Thank you so much for the information. It really helps. We sent all documents at mid May and my home country embassy sent the no objection letter at the end of May. However, no information is found when I track online and it seems from peoples responses that it is taking about 8 weeks to get  a status update online of the received documents.

 

[MZQ 0]

Hi all, first post here!

 

For the NOC based J1 waiver, I have 2 out of the required 3 clearances from my home country (India). My J1 ends March, 2021 (full 5 years).

 

Going by the delay in FR due to the pandemic, is it better to file ds3035 now (as I wait for my clearances) or only file once I have them in hand?

 

I am considering the former as it seems it takes a while (may be a month or more) for the online status to show the documents (package1) as received by the DoS. Please advise.

[Ari.7 0]

Hi all,

 

Anybody whose package reached in May to DOS  (J1 waiver 3rd stage) and got status updated in their website? It has been 5 weeks my package reached them but my application does not show up. I even called the bank where the cashier's check was issued. They said the check was not even cashed. 

[no12name 0]

16 hours ago, MZQ said:

Hi all, first post here!

 

For the NOC based J1 waiver, I have 2 out of the required 3 clearances from my home country (India). My J1 ends March, 2021 (full 5 years).

 

Going by the delay in FR due to the pandemic, is it better to file ds3035 now (as I wait for my clearances) or only file once I have them in hand?

 

I am considering the former as it seems it takes a while (may be a month or more) for the online status to show the documents (package1) as received by the DoS. Please advise.

It seems advisable to only have the embassy send the NOS once your other documents (3035 etc.) are received by the waiver department and are listed as received in the online system. If the NOS reaches the DOS before your other documents are in the online system, they might not be able to correctly assign it to your case number and it will be lost (happened to me and several others in this forum).

If you don't need to extend your J1 anymore I would probably recommend to send the ds3035 now and ask the Indian Embassy to only send the rest of the documents once your application package shows up in the online system.

 

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by no12name

[MZQ 0]

3 minutes ago, no12name said:

It seems advisable to only have the embassy send the NOS once your other documents (3035 etc.) are received by the waiver department and are listed as received in the online system. If the NOS reaches the DOS before your other documents are in the online system, they might not be able to correctly assign it to your case number and it will be lost (happened to me and several others in this forum).

If you don't need to extend your J1 anymore I would probably recommend to send the ds3035 now and ask the Indian Embassy to only send the rest of the documents once your application package shows up in the online system.

 

 

Thanks fr the tip. Yes, I won't be getting any extension to my J1 now as already in the 5th year. So, I guess I will just send fill in the ds3035 and send it to DoS while I wait for my clearances. Once I have those, I will use send them (and the case number and Bar code page) to my Consulate, which will then forward it to the Indian Embassy in D.C. Hopefully, by the time the documents reach consulate, the online status on DoS will show as all (except NOC) documents received, and I won't have an issue. Sounds about right, right?

[no12name 0]

Yes, that's what I would suggest. Good luck!