ErinK

What you are describing is Persecution waiver not Hardship. Persecution waivers are actually really fast. If you have a persecution case (if you get in trouble if you go back to your country) you or your lawyer should have filed a persecution J-1 waiver. Don't wait in this crazy long line. File a perscution waiver. They decide those in less than 6 months and it doesn't even need sponsor view

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

Finally got approval. My case has been pending with DoS since Feb 2022. Filed a lawsuit which took about 1 month for all parties (USCIS and DOS) to be served. Once they got served, it took around 3 weeks to get FR from DoS. USCIS asked for an extension until Nov but ended up approving the case and sending me the final waiver within 2 weeks of FR from DoS. I hired a lawyer and paid 5K. Good luck everybody

I think this is the way they look at all these other categories: -No objection: Oh you have a phd and your country doesn't need you. Great! Stay! (This is the easiest category) -Interested U.S. government agency: You want to work for an agency we care about? Great! Stay! -Conrad 30: You want to be a doctor in an underserved area in the States that no U.S. citizen wants to go and you are willing to lock yourself in a 3-year harsh contract? Go right ahead -Persecution: I guess we can't tell you to go back to a country that will hurt you or kill you. Whatever. Just stay here. We know that even if we reject your waiver, you are going to apply for asylum and probably win You see how hardship is the only category they can/want to mess with?

You can file it at any time you want but if you file it too early and before DoS's max processing time mentioned on their website (which is 52 weeks I believe) , DoS can ask the court to essentially throw out your lawsuit.

I agree with everything you said but I think we should be careful not to take our frustration on other groups of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, or blame them for our wait time. I know that's not what you meant but the government actually loves it when it can point to one immigrant group to justify its lack of efficiency. Just FYI for anyone interested: Asylum seekers are not allowed to apply for work permits until 180 days after their application for asylum is filed and then it takes the government up to a year to issue their work card. Like everyone else, some get theirs faster and some have to wait the full 8-9 months. As for status, they don't get status for YEARS. Right now the wait for the asylum office to even call you for an interview is very very long. I know people who have been waiting since 2017. Once you get to the interview and they accept your asylum case, then you have to wait another year before you are eligible to even apply for a green card (change of status). They have work permits so at least they are in a safe place and can have income but it takes years before they get any real status. It's heartbreaking what asylum seekers go through. Also, some asylum offices have very high rejection rate so after waiting for years, they can still put the asylum seeker in removal.

The timeline I provided is from two lawyers I have spoken to file a lawsuit. Also, this data is publicly available. The government, and USCIS in particular, gets sued all the time. I am in the process of hiring a lawyer to file a lawsuit and will continue to share the information I get from my lawyer here to help others who are planning to file. I am not sure why you are taking such an aggressive tone with me or why you think I have an agenda. Not everything is a conspiracy theory. Frankly, I don't care what you think of me. I don't know you and you don't know me. Hope your case gets resolved.

That is a possibility. The way lawsuits work is that your lawyer file with the court, then the court sends summons to the defendants (in this case both DoS and USCIS) which informs them that they sued. All of this is on paper and via regular mail. The process of sending the summons takes up to a month. Once every defendant has been served, they have 60 days to respond and on top of that they can ask for another 30 days extension. So if you add those days up with the date when OP filed the lawsuit until they got an FR, you will come to the conclusion that it's unlikely that the lawsuit got DoS moving. But again it's not impossible and still, I think a lawsuit is the way to go. I'm not sure if 21+ months is the norm. We all have delayed cases which is why we are here on this forum. I actually have no data to know if we are the norm or the outlier. Do you?

Do you know when the defendants were served? It's a different date than when the court received the case. It can take up to one month for the defendants to be served from the time the court receives the case. It's very likely that the lawsuit had nothing to do with the approval. Either way, it's great that you finally received an answer. 16 months is way too long. Mine is at 17 months

I got a response in less than a week too. They are very expeditious in rejecting expedite requests!

Something like this: I am writing to respond to the Request for Evidence (RFE) that I received on [date]. I understand that USCIS is concerned that I am requesting a change of status to O-1. I would like to clarify that I am not requesting a change of status and that I am planning to do consular processing. I am planning to leave the United States and go to the U.S embassy in [town] and apply for a visa.

you can't change your status from J-1 to O-1 from inside the country. Once USCIS approved your O-1, you should leave the United States and go get an O-1 visa stamp from U.S. embassy

What does objecting to contract and salary even mean? They are claiming it's not a real job? So ridiculous

Has anyone provided DoS with their updated DS2019 once they extended their J-1 status? Is it necessary? Can it complicate things further?

I hear it depends on the USCIS center your O-1 application goes to. A lawyer told me the Vermont center is very strict. They issue a lot of RFEs and have a high rejection rate for O-1