As others have mentioned, this forum was very helpful during the J1 waiver application, so I'd like to share my timeline that may be useful to others.
Mine was a fairly simple case: I'm from Costa Rica and I had a J1 visa for one year back in 2003. The program wasn't financed by either government. After that I remained in the US with an F1 visa. Here is the timeline for my application:
30-may-09: Mailed DofS forms and documents
3-jun-09: DofS cashed check
17-jun-09: DofS rec'd fee, DS3035, IAP66, passpt, stmt-of-reason
10-jul-09: DofS rec'd No-Objection-Stmt from Embassy
22-jul-09: DofS sent favorable recommendation
23-jul-09: IUCIS rec'd form I-612 from DofS
7-ago-09: Favorable recomm letter from DofS arrived!!
24-ago-09: Called USCIS to get receipt number*
16-set-09: USCIS sent I-612 approval notice
24-set-09: I-612 approval notice from USCIS arrived!!
* As many others, I didn't get a "receipt notice" from USCIS after DofS filed form I-612. The receipt notice has a case number you can use to track your case on the USCIS system. You need to call USCIS to get it after the DofS issues the recommendation. There are a couple of threads about it here.
I would advice to start as early as you can and then just be patient, which is probably the hardest part. Hope this is helpful to others and good luck.
Mine was a fairly simple case: I'm from Costa Rica and I had a J1 visa for one year back in 2003. The program wasn't financed by either government. After that I remained in the US with an F1 visa. Here is the timeline for my application:
30-may-09: Mailed DofS forms and documents
3-jun-09: DofS cashed check
17-jun-09: DofS rec'd fee, DS3035, IAP66, passpt, stmt-of-reason
10-jul-09: DofS rec'd No-Objection-Stmt from Embassy
22-jul-09: DofS sent favorable recommendation
23-jul-09: IUCIS rec'd form I-612 from DofS
7-ago-09: Favorable recomm letter from DofS arrived!!
24-ago-09: Called USCIS to get receipt number*
16-set-09: USCIS sent I-612 approval notice
24-set-09: I-612 approval notice from USCIS arrived!!
* As many others, I didn't get a "receipt notice" from USCIS after DofS filed form I-612. The receipt notice has a case number you can use to track your case on the USCIS system. You need to call USCIS to get it after the DofS issues the recommendation. There are a couple of threads about it here.
I would advice to start as early as you can and then just be patient, which is probably the hardest part. Hope this is helpful to others and good luck.
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