J1 waiver approval based on NO

[piyush204]

Following are the dates for the different stages in my J1 waiver approval process (based on No Objection)

March 20th - filled forms (to be sent to the three depts in India) and got them attested from the Indian consulate in Newyork. Filed for case number with D0S electronically.

March last week - sent the three forms to the three depts in India through friends.

April 20th - Indian Consulate in NY had recd the NORI from Delhi Passport office and Min. of Edu

June last week - Indian Consulate in NY recd the NORI from the Home Ministry of Rajasthan

July 1st week - Indian Embassy in Washington recd the NOC from Indian Consulate in NY.

July 25th - DoS recd the NOC from Indian Embassy in Washington

July 27th - DoS approved the waiver and issued Favorable Recommendation

Aug 10th - DoS despatched the fav recommendation to USCIS

Aug 22nd - USCIS recd the fav recommendation

Aug 29th - received the I797C

Oct 4th - USCIS approved the waiver

Oct 13th - received the approval notice

[vamsi23]

Hi,

I am about the send the forms to India.
You mentioned that you have sent the three forms to the three depts in India through friends. - did you sent the documents directly to the respective depts. or sent to your friends and then they went to the respective dept. with the forms? Hope your friends had helped you in getting the clearance from these dept. fast. could you please clarify me regarding this?

thanks
vamsi

[vamsi23]

Hi,

I have few more questions. could youplease help me?

1. how to write the statement (reasons for not fulfilling HRR) to DOS?

2. can I apply for case No. with out any NO OBJ / or waiver letter from Indian embassy. What are the documents I need to submit along with application form for case no. Does this appication has anything to do with my travel outside the US with my current J1?

3. Also, how to write "A statement demonstrating why the exchange visitor is eligible to receive a waiver of the two-year"?

thanks
vamsi

[Pramath]

I am somewhat intrigued by the timeline posted by Piyush.
There seems a gap between the time the DOS made a
favourable recommendation and the time the fav reco was
dispatched to the USCIS. Is that usual? The DOS website
for my case has been showing favourable recommendation
"sent" on October 12, the same day that it was issued.
Is the "sent" to be taken seriously? I wonder if it
really has been sent, or as in Piyush's case, it will eventually
be sent after a gap.

Pramath

Originally Posted by piyush204

Following are the dates for the different stages in my J1 waiver approval process (based on No Objection)

March 20th - filled forms (to be sent to the three depts in India) and got them attested from the Indian consulate in Newyork. Filed for case number with D0S electronically.

March last week - sent the three forms to the three depts in India through friends.

April 20th - Indian Consulate in NY had recd the NORI from Delhi Passport office and Min. of Edu

June last week - Indian Consulate in NY recd the NORI from the Home Ministry of Rajasthan

July 1st week - Indian Embassy in Washington recd the NOC from Indian Consulate in NY.

July 25th - DoS recd the NOC from Indian Embassy in Washington

July 27th - DoS approved the waiver and issued Favorable Recommendation

Aug 10th - DoS despatched the fav recommendation to USCIS

Aug 22nd - USCIS recd the fav recommendation

Aug 29th - received the I797C

Oct 4th - USCIS approved the waiver

Oct 13th - received the approval notice

[piyush204]

Vamsi,
I sent the forms to my friends and they took it in person to the respective depts. It reduced the time frames a lot with respect to Min. of Edu and Delhi passport office as they kept following up with these offices. Rajasthan Home Ministry though took longer time because they need Police verification of my home ddress in India (but it could have taken longer if someone was not chasing up the progress of the processing). So, my suggestion is to send the forms to someone in India and ask them to chase up on it.
Regarding your other questions, the only part that I have answer to is that - yes, you can apply for case number and DoS without NO from Indian Embassy. I do not have answer to other questions because my lawyer did the filing etc.
Pramath,
When the DoS website says that Fav recommendation has been "sent", it only means that it has been approved. After a week or may be two later, someone will actually print the recommendation and post it to the USCIS. So, if your case status was updated with a fav recommendation on Oct 12th for the first time, expect upto 2 weeks before they actually send it and another 2 weeks before USCIS send you the receipt number.

[peddha]

Hi guys
I have a question. I recently renewed my passport with the consulate general of India in San Francisco. So I have both passports (both have different numbers). Should I write my current passport no(that I received from SF) in the forms, and still send the forms to passport office in India?
thanks.

[Pramath]

I got my final approval for a waiver of the 212(e) requirement
today from the USCIS. My time line was somewhat uneven.
I'm from India, and getting the NORI from my passport office
(Chennai) took over a year since they conveniently lost my
original affidavit. Anyway, I had all the NORIs with me on
September 7, 2006. I sent them to the Indian Embassy in DC
on Sept 8. The DOS received the no objection letter from
the Indian Embassy on Oct 2. On Oct 12, DOS gave a
favourable recommendation for a waiver (the website showed
this on Oct 13), and I got the letter from the DOS stating this
last week (Oct 24). The letter was addressed to the Nebraska
service center. I expected the USCIS to send a letter in about
two weeks, and expected another four weeks before they gave
their final approval. I was very surprised to receive a Notice
of Action from the Vermont center (not Nebraska) today and it was
a final approval! Pretty stunning. I'm still trying to get over it.

Pramath

[Pramath]

I had that problem too. I found enough space in the NORI affidavit to squeeze in
both numbers (one on top of the other) with (NEW) or (OLD) put in parenthesis next
to the numbers. This had to be done a couple of times I think. And in the cover letter
to the various places I mentioned this, and sent copies of relevent pages of both
passports (the new one has a page which gives the old number). It worked. Perhaps just
putting in the new one would have worked just as well, but the new one was from the
Toronto consulate and I could see no reason why the passport office in India would
entertain any NORI request with that.

Originally Posted by peddha

Hi guys
I have a question. I recently renewed my passport with the consulate general of India in San Francisco. So I have both passports (both have different numbers). Should I write my current passport no(that I received from SF) in the forms, and still send the forms to passport office in India?
thanks.