Motheus

Where my lawsuit was filed is irrelevant to you. Since the mandamus lawsuit is a lawsuit against federal agencies, you need a lawyer with a license for filing suits in federal court. The lawsuit will be filed at whichever federal court has jurisdiction over where you live currently.

No worries at all, I am happy to share my experience. I can't say for sure it was the Mandamus suit that did it as far as my case is concerned. Either way, I am happy DoS gave me my recommendation even if it took almost 16 months. For context, I know someone who got their DoS recommendation after only 9 months in June 2023 (without a mandamus suit). Their case involved a USC child, whereas mine is a spouse. My mandamus suit was filed against both DoS and USCIS at the same time. It took my lawyer about 2 weeks to prepare/file the case. The cost was $5,400. The case marked as received by the court on June the 16th, 2023 and I got my DoS decision on August the 10th. I am still now waiting for USCIS to send me the final notice of approval, so I am not out of the woods yet. Hope this helps!

Hey guys happy to share that my hardship waiver application was approved as of 8.10.2023!!! I am so happy and relieved after such a long wait. I did file a writ of Mandamus in June, so not sure if that had anything to do with it. Best of luck to everyone out there!

I've been waiting on DoS since April 2022. May I ask if your case is based on hardship to a USC spouse or child? (mine is spouse). It appears most of the favorable decisions I have seen recently (especially the timely ones) have been based on hardship to USC children. I would love if anyone could disprove this btw!

As I understand it, the Department of State wants you to make your strongest case to USCIS from the outset. They don't respond very well to additional information. Of course this makes no sense, because situations can (and do) evolve over time, especially given their long processing time. It probably wouldn't hurt to mail your updated information to the waiver review division and hope it gets added to your file. That tends to be hit or miss. It wouldn't make sense to refile the hardship waiver seeing as they are taking up to 20 months (in some cases) to give a decision. If you have the ability to file for another type of waiver (like persecution or conrad), that would override your hardship application. All this is my own lay understanding!

@PeterW thanks for your comment! For the March case you are referring to, do you know if this was a spontaneous decision by DoS, or if the applicant filed a Writ of Mandamus suit? I am seriously considering that now.

Wow, 20 MONTHS! I am happy for whoever this is but this is depressing for me. I am at 13 months now waiting for the DoS. Does anyone know of a case that recently got approved around the 13-14th month mark? Just wondering if 17-20 months is the new pattern or if only the outliers are posting here.

Hi, my case is just over the 1 year mark with US DoS (received 4/25/2022). I am considering filing this writ of mandamus thing, mainly because I will be running out J-1 status in June '23. Do you (or anyone you know) have any experience with filing the WoM against the US DoS? Is it effective, and does it buy any time at all?

Thanks for your response. Will post an update as soon as I have one.

Hello there, could you please provide an update on your case? I have a job offer in Davidson county but would also need a conrad-30 waiver. My status expires on June 30, 2023; so I want to know if there is a any chance of getting my waiver through before the end of July when my grace period expires. Please advise.

Hello there! Any update on your case? I filed for the same waiver and our timelines are similar. Would greatly appreciate a response.

Hello all, I am very glad to have found this forum because I am currently at a major crossroads. My J-1 status expires on June the 30th, 2023. I filed an exceptional hardship waiver request which has been pending with the DoS for over 52 weeks now (see below). I do have a job offer in hand, and my prospective employer (HCA hospital group) is willing file a Conrad-30 waiver for me, or file an H1-B if the exceptional hardship waiver comes through in time. My issue now is whether or not to give the exceptional hardship waiver a few more weeks or to activate the Conrad-30 route (which as I understand it would nullify my existing exceptional hardship waiver filing). So my question is this: is anyone aware of anybody that had their exceptional hardship waiver decision recently approved/denied by the US DoS (in April or May 2023) and how long did it take?