Hardship Waivers

An alien who is a physician retained us to waive his two year rule that pertained to his J-1 visa. He came to the US from Lebanon for medical residency training. He finished his training and is now doing his fellowship. The physician has a US citizen daughter and the basis of the hardship waiver claim is exceptional hardship to the US citizen daughter. In July of 2011 we requested a Dept of State case # from DOS to initiate the waiver process. We then started preparing the hardship claim, documents, forms and other materials showing extreme hardship to the physicians US citizen daughter. The hardship would occur if the daughter would have to stay in the US alone without her father or relocate to Lebanon with him for two years. The US citizen daughter is very young and needs care and attention. On October 25, 2011 we filed the J-1 hardship waiver to USCIS. We tracked the status of the case online with DOS and USCIS and learned on December 30, 2011 that the case was approved. The family was very pleased with our work and was overjoyed with the outcome of the case. Attorney Margaret Wong and paralegal Brian Marek worked on this case.

We were retained by a Chinese husband and wife who live in Illinois. THey have one child who is a US Citizen. The husband is on a J-1 and is subject to the two year rule and needs to return to  his home country for two years or obtain a waiver. The wife is a legal permanent resident. We worked on getting the husband a waiver of the J-1 visa two year requirement based on the exceptional hardship claim that his wife and child will experience if he goes to China for two years. We filed the hardship waiver to USCIS on September 27, 2010. A DOS case number had already been obtained. On December 27, 2010 we cehcked online with DOS and found the case was recommended by DOS for approval. Attorney Margaret Wong worked on the case with the help of Brian Marek (paralegal)

We helped an Indian client obtain a J-1 waiver recently. She is married to a US Citizen who ran his own business as a woodworker, but had to close it down because of the bad economy. The alien entered the US on a J-1 for research and later met and married the US citizen. To avoid reeturning to her home country for two years to fulfill the residency requirement she wanted a waiver. We filed the hardship waiver discussing all the hardships the USC would face whther he stayed in the US without his wife or returned ro India to be with her for two years. We filed on September 30, 2010 and it was approved on December 1, 2010. USCIS worked fast on this case. The clients were very pleased!!!! Margaret Wong worked on this case with the help of Brian Marek.

USCIS denied our client's application to obtain his green card due to prior fraud. USCIS found he was inadmissible due to the fraud and the fact that they denied his waiver request. We then appealed the waiver denial to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). The AAO agreed with us and granted the waiver based on extreme hardship that the United States citizen spouse would suffer should the applicant be required to return home. Thus, our client can now get his case approved since the sole ground for denial has been overcome. Scott Bratton handled the case.

Our office recently obtained a 601 hardship waiver approval, which was filed on behalf of an individual who had entered the U.S. with improper documentation. This person had married an United States citizen and had a child. The approval was granted due to the potential emotional trauma that would be caused to the child through a separation from her parent. The financial hardships to this person's spouse were also a major consideration. It is now possible for this family to stay together in the United States.