J1 Hardship Waiver 2021-2022 Timeline

[g3dan00 20]

36 minutes ago, Sabina Bart said:

What's strange that this is already like 4th or 5th mandamus filed and they seem not to care. Indeed a broken system. 
But really has anyone with a Gov funding ever filed it? 
 

4th and 5th? My lawyer alone said they are submitting 5-6 of these every month. 

[Wyboxcx 49]

31 minutes ago, Sabina Bart said:

How many of us are still waiting a decision from the DOS?

I am still waiting for a DOS decision and at this rate I am not expecting to hear back from them until at some point in August or September 2024

[J1 Physician 4]

Can writ agitate Dos

[ErinK 35]

17 minutes ago, Magnet said:

@ErinK @g3dan00

 

Congrats to both of you. Did you try to expedite or contact congressman before resorting to WoM? 
 

Do you recommend trying those before the Mandamus or go straight for WoM when we are out of processing timeline?

 

I did both of those multiple times. My situation and the hardship imposed on the U.S citizen spouse and minor were pretty dire and life-threatening but they still didn't expedite it. Both my attempts and multiple congresspeople's efforts to expedite didn't go anywhere. 

 

I did not have government funding for those asking nor was sponsor views involved. 

 

You can use any lawyer to file WoM. It's pretty standard. It's best to do it with the lawyer already helping you with your J-1 since they are familiar with the case and can write a strong cover letter for your lawsuit 

[Saysono 5]

6 minutes ago, ErinK said:

 

I did both of those multiple times. My situation and the hardship imposed on the U.S citizen spouse and minor were pretty dire and life-threatening but they still didn't expedite it. Both my attempts and multiple congresspeople's efforts to expedite didn't go anywhere. 

 

I did not have government funding for those asking nor was sponsor views involved. 

 

You can use any lawyer to file WoM. It's pretty standard. It's best to do it with the lawyer already helping you with your J-1 since they are familiar with the case and can write a strong cover letter for your lawsuit 

Can you share who your lawyer was? My original filing lawyer doesn’t do writ of mandamus 

[TonyW 6]

An update on my case:

It took 21 days from DOS Sent Favorable Recommendation to USCIS final approval in Sep 2023.

Hopefully, this will help.

I-613->DOS favorable April 2022-Sep 2023

 

Ironically I had to leave the US to fulfill the 2 year requirement and literally, I don't need the approval. My family in the US received the approval notice on the same day for my immigrant visa interview. 

[g3dan00 20]

5 minutes ago, TonyW said:

An update on my case:

It took 21 days from DOS Sent Favorable Recommendation to USCIS final approval in Sep 2023.

Hopefully, this will help.

I-613->DOS favorable April 2022-Sep 2023

 

Ironically I had to leave the US to fulfill the 2 year requirement and literally, I don't need the approval. My family in the US received the approval notice on the same day for my immigrant visa interview. 

Hi, sorry to hear that you went into trouble and congrats on the approval. By 21 days you mean from the day you received Favorable Recommendation until the day you saw "Case Approved" in Uscis i-612 case status? 

[TonyW 6]

2 hours ago, g3dan00 said:

Hi, sorry to hear that you went into trouble and congrats on the approval. By 21 days you mean from the day you received Favorable Recommendation until the day you saw "Case Approved" in Uscis i-612 case status? 

DoS made their decision and sent the recommendation on the same day.  I don't know when USCIS received the recommendation but it was approved 21 days after I tracked Favorable Recommendation on DoS website.

[g3dan00 20]

1 minute ago, TonyW said:

DoS made their decision and sent the recommendation on the same day.  I don't know when USCIS received the recommendation but it was approved 21 days after I tracked Favorable Recommendation on DoS website.

Interesting. For the record mine was approved on the same day in USCIS.

[Hardship_waiver 54]

23 hours ago, TonyW said:

An update on my case:

It took 21 days from DOS Sent Favorable Recommendation to USCIS final approval in Sep 2023.

Hopefully, this will help.

I-613->DOS favorable April 2022-Sep 2023

 

Ironically I had to leave the US to fulfill the 2 year requirement and literally, I don't need the approval. My family in the US received the approval notice on the same day for my immigrant visa interview. 

That explains well the ongoing crises for hardship cases (these cases only lead to an increased hardship along the process). At this stage, the hardship waiver is of no use as many have already fulfilled or will fulfill the two-years requirement in a few months by going home due to delayed decisions.  

 

The only thing an applicant gets in this black-box process (no seniority, no timeline) is everyday of suffering, losing job & opportunities by keeping false hopes with the system. 

The only way to end miseries of U.S. citizens facing hardship is by ending the hardship J-waiver categrory so that people can plan better for their loved ones facing extreme hardship.  

[TonyW 6]

7 hours ago, Hardship_waiver said:

That explains well the ongoing crises for hardship cases (these cases only lead to an increased hardship along the process). At this stage, the hardship waiver is of no use as many have already fulfilled or will fulfill the two-years requirement in a few months by going home due to delayed decisions.  

 

The only thing an applicant gets in this black-box process (no seniority, no timeline) is everyday of suffering, losing job & opportunities by keeping false hopes with the system. 

The only way to end miseries of U.S. citizens facing hardship is by ending the hardship J-waiver categrory so that people can plan better for their loved ones facing extreme hardship.  

When I filed my I-612, I only had about 8 months to fulfill the two years requirement.

I have filed five I-539 forms to Extend Nonimmigrant Status (I was a tourist to accompany my family). The fourth one was denied by USCIC so I had to leave the US.

It was very painful. 

 

[Hardship_waiver 54]

2 minutes ago, TonyW said:

When I filed my I-612, I only had about 8 months to fulfill the two years requirement.

I have filed five I-539 forms to Extend Nonimmigrant Status (I was a tourist to accompany my family). The fourth one was denied by USCIC so I had to leave the US.

It was very painful. 

 

Sad to hear another sad story. And for all the time you can't even work and have to pay for the USCIS filing fee too and in the end still have to leave. 

No objections, iga's etc are getting decisions in 4-6 months. 

Worst part: J-hardship waiver doesn't allow you to stay in US or concurrently file it with i-485 like the i-601 hardship waiver. 

[Wyboxcx 49]

8 hours ago, Hardship_waiver said:

That explains well the ongoing crises for hardship cases (these cases only lead to an increased hardship along the process). At this stage, the hardship waiver is of no use as many have already fulfilled or will fulfill the two-years requirement in a few months by going home due to delayed decisions.  

 

The only thing an applicant gets in this black-box process (no seniority, no timeline) is everyday of suffering, losing job & opportunities by keeping false hopes with the system. 

The only way to end miseries of U.S. citizens facing hardship is by ending the hardship J-waiver categrory so that people can plan better for their loved ones facing extreme hardship.  

It seems the State Department wrongly believes that marriage to a US citizen is often used by J-1 visa holders to bypass the requirement, that is why they are dragging the hardship waiver process to take longer than the requirement itself, it's a form of punishment for those who actually face severe hardship and cannot return home with their families. They might as well just stop allowing waivers under this category. There is no other reason why all other waiver categories are processed faster than hardship to a US citizen, even persecution waivers are processed faster. You would think that the Biden administration would prioritize the wellbeing of its own citizens and their families, but no, they decided to prioritize politics and program and policy considerations. They have not even posted the statistics for the past fiscal year, my guess is that there is a shocking increase in the rate of denials of hardship waivers by the DOS. it's a desperate time. 

[Hardship_waiver 54]

2 minutes ago, Wyboxcx said:

It seems the State Department wrongly believes that marriage to a US citizen is often used by J-1 visa holders to bypass the requirement, that is why they are dragging the hardship waiver process to take longer than the requirement itself, it's a form of punishment for those who actually face severe hardship and cannot return home with their families. They might as well just stop allowing waivers under this category. There is no other reason why all other waiver categories are processed faster than hardship to a US citizen, even persecution waivers are processed faster. You would think that the Biden administration would prioritize the wellbeing of its own citizens and their families, but no, they decided to prioritize politics and program and policy considerations. They have not even posted the statistics for the past fiscal year, my guess is that there is a shocking increase in the rate of denials of hardship waivers by the DOS. it's a desperate time. 

Much more NOC waivers are applied than hardship waivers but DOS has enough time to process them all. NO COVID BACKLOG. 

If they don't want to give hardship waivers, they should end this category. Why waste people money, time, life on a process that has no definite path, no timeline. OR

Deny hardship applications within processing time posted on their website. 

[lennikov 34]

Quote

It seems the State Department wrongly believes that marriage to a US citizen is often used by J-1 visa holders to bypass the requirement, that is why they are dragging the hardship waiver process to take longer than the requirement itself, it's a form of punishment for those who actually face severe hardship and cannot return home with their families. 

It is more complicated than simple punishment; DOS is not an entity to punish someone, just a raging bureaucracy involving both USICS and DOS branches. I doubt any individual DOS and USCIS staff member is interested in causing suffering to families and US citizens. Yet, the lack of explanation of ~24-48 months waiting time for a decision on the case makes it sound like a penalty to the individuals who claim hardships waiver. I think it's just system runs itself into the condition that the only way a J-1 hardship waiver can work is if the applicant can obtain an O-1 visa to have the ability to wait for the decision otherwise, depending on how early the applicant files for the hardship wavier he most likely fulfill the 2YHR before the waiver decision is made making the whole category completely useless for the average person filing for it. The reasonable thing to do would be to make strict requirements for the waiver, i.e., supported by medical documents, as it is frequently health-related, but make the decision time the same as other categories. I think one of the problems is that hardship is a very vague term that in DOS's mind, requires a lot of time to investigate and look at from every perspective before reaching a conclusion, so paradoxically the very long decision time most likely done by the DOS in the interest of the applicant, but as usual, they fail to account that such a long waiting time cause even more hardships.