J1 Visa Waiver - Request for Visa Sponsor Approval Letter

[JaneNC 1]

My daughter in law has approximately 16 months left on her J1 visa. She is a teacher and received her J1 through a teacher exchange sponsorship program. She is married to a US citizen and is planning to apply for a green card. Her home country's embassy is requesting a letter of approval for the waiver from her J1 Visa sponsor in order to provide a No Objection Statement. She was advised not to do this because this may trigger an immediate termination of her J1 visa. She has all the other supporting documents. Anyone else have this situation? Any advice?

[Veronikac 15]

Was she sponsored by the US government or by her home country government? Or what is the reason of the two years home residency requirement on her J1 visa (skills list)?

Edited February 5, 2021 by Veronikac

[JaneNC 1]

@Veronikac No, she did not receive funding from the US or her home country (Honduras). The two year residency requirement is her skills as a teacher.

Edited February 5, 2021 by JaneNC

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

Perhaps she needs to explore the other waiver options(other than the NOL) such as extreme hardship to her qualifying relative.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[JaneNC 1]

@Lucky Cat She has all other supporting documents for fulfilling the NOS for her country. This is just an additional request. She's got everything else notarized and approved by her government. I'm just wondering if other J1 waiver applicants with teacher exchange sponsors may have experienced this type of request and risk of termination of the sponsor visa.

[Veronikac 15]

That is an interesting situation. I am not a J1 teacher but when I was requesting the NOS from my country, they were not trying to contact the sponsor at all. However,  my situation was different since I had US government funding and I was not on the skills list. As Lucky Cat mentioned, you can look in other waiver paths (but from what I read, the extreme hardship is a very long and complicated process and not everybody qualify for it). 

Not sure if this will be a good idea, but she can try to contact her sponsor and talk to them about her situation, maybe they will be willing to provide the sponsor approval letter.  I would also try to contact some J1 waiver experienced lawyer to discuss this situation.

[JaneNC 1]

@Veronikac I was trying to find out if this is a mandatory requirement. She does not want to jeopardize her visa status by contacting the J1 sponsor. She informally asked someone who works there what the risks are to request the letter and the response was their policy is to recruit teachers who agree to return to their home country and share their skills training with their country. If they agreed to do it for her than others would want the same thing and they don't want to be known as a gateway for dual immigration.

Edited February 5, 2021 by JaneNC

[Coco8 1,042]

I don't agree with looking for other paths for a J1 waiver. Those paths are going to fail because Honduras is not under civil war and there is no genocide going on, or anything like that.

 

Unfortunately, her J1 is going to be terminated when she asks them for the letter, because these exchange programs for teachers often have an item on there that they cannot do AOS. That's because it's an exchange program. If she is applying for a green card, it means she is not going back to her country to use her experiences in the US.  

 

The issue here is whether the program she is a part of will provide a favorable letter and what the government would do with a negative letter. She could try to find that out, maybe by looking for any teachers that were in a similar situation. If for some reason the program gives a negative letter, she could add her own statement to the government officials when they write her No objection letter. She could write a statement about how she got married, how they cannot be apart and include something on how the husband cannot move to Honduras. She could add short letters from family about the relationship. 

 

I feel that if she doesn't tell the program she got married, it could be harder for her to get a favorable letter from them. They will find out the date of when she got married somehow and if she hides it, that's not going to be good, because she obviously wants to apply for the green card. These programs make you sign paper work and explain what the rules are. So even if she has 16 months, she should not wait 16 months  to tell them she got married and would like to get out of the 2 year residency requirement. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JaneNC 1]

@Coco8 Thanks for your response. She wants to avoid contacting her program sponsor for the exact reason you mentioned. Instead of providing the letter from them, she is going to write a cover letter explaining that she is married to a US Citizen who cannot move to Honduras and the reasons for this. She is including a copy of her marriage certificate. Is this what you are referring to when you said...

 

"she could add her own statement to the government officials when they write her No objection letter. She could write a statement about how she got married, how they cannot be apart and include something on how the husband cannot move to Honduras. She could add short letters from family about the relationship."

 

She was not planning on getting her exchange program for teachers involved. Do you think the cover letter would be acceptable?

[Coco8 1,042]

If does not want to contact them, the embassy could contact them and ask for their opinion.  If that happens, they will probably won't react nicely, because she was probably told of the conditions of the exchange program. 

 

If she still goes ahead with this (which I don't think it's a good  idea) and she gets the No objection statement, she should contact the agency and quit. It's just bad not to go by what the program stipulated. 

[JaneNC 1]

On 2/6/2021 at 2:33 PM, Coco8 said:

The issue here is whether the program she is a part of will provide a favorable letter

@Coco8 I'm confused about what you mean by providing a favorable letter. 

 

If she quits, won't her J1 get terminated?

 

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by JaneNC

[Coco8 1,042]

13 minutes ago, JaneNC said:

@Coco8 I'm confused about what you mean by providing a favorable letter. 

 

If she quits, won't her J1 get terminated?

 

 

 

You said that the embassy is asking her to provide a letter from her sponsor. She is not sending one and the embassy can contact them directly for it if she refuses to send it. 

 

If she quits, her J1 will be terminated. But she is married to a US citizen and if the "no objection statement" is favorable, she should get the waiver from DOS. Any overstay in the visa is forgiven for AOS by marrying a US citizen.

 

 

[JaneNC 1]

@Coco8 Thank you for all your help. I just need clarification: Are you saying including a cover letter with her paper work to the embassy requesting the no objection letter, explaining her marriage to a US citizen and that he cannot live in Honduras, etc. would help her case? She is planning to this.

Edited February 7, 2021 by JaneNC

[Coco8 1,042]

1 hour ago, JaneNC said:

@Coco8 Thank you for all your help. I just need clarification: Are you saying including a cover letter with her paper work to the embassy requesting the no objection letter, explaining her marriage to a US citizen and that he cannot live in Honduras, etc. would help her case? She is planning to this.

Yes.