J1 after J1 but how to count the HRR?

M

MELB

New Member
Hello,

How is time towards HRR counted when I had two J-1 in a row (two completely separate, unrelated, separately funded J-1, first was a private scholarship, about year later I had USIA graduate scholarship?

Do I have to stay home for 4 years? Two years? If two years, when do they start counting?

Thanks!
 
Two years, not four.
It doesn't found like your first J-1 subjected you to HRR, but even if it does, it's still 2 years.
You start counting once you arrive in your country of residence.
 
How do you count time towards home stay?

After first J1 stay, I returned home. The clock starts counting towards 2year home rule. After a year at home, I start second J1 stay. After the second J1 stay, I return home. Is the clock towards 2 year home stay reset to zero, or does it continue from the end of the first stay (minus the time spend on the second J1)?

Who knows the right answer?
 
MELB said:
After first J1 stay, I returned home. The clock starts counting towards 2year home rule. After a year at home, I start second J1 stay. After the second J1 stay, I return home. Is the clock towards 2 year home stay reset to zero, or does it continue from the end of the first stay (minus the time spend on the second J1)?

Who knows the right answer?
Click to expand...

That's like the "100 million dollar question". It's probably one of the vaguest rules around......212e.

All the rule says is that the time starts to count following "departure" from the USA. Because of this, the rule seems to be left wide open to many interpretations. Some feel that it is only after you finish your J-1 program......others feel that ANY time spent in your home country, even the trips that might have been taken while still on the J-1 count.

I guess it will come down to whomever one day adjudicates your case (I assume if you are concerned with the 2 year rule, then you must have intentions of returning permanently to the USA eventually.....otherwise the rule would not matter).

I personally, when looking at the actual 212e rule.........believe it means ANY time you spent in your home country.....following any "departure" after you entered the first time on the J-1. And if we go by that logic, then since you only will have to serve one "2 year HRR".......that one year spent in your home country previously, should count. And you'd only have one year left to serve.

However........that's my interpretation. Unfortunately, others who read the rule, may tend to see it differently.

It would be nice , someday, if they would rewrite that rule......and clarify it so that there would not be such confusion and misunderstanding regarding it.
 
I think but not sure that the time well be counted from the 0 again. The first year you spent is the 12 months bar between the two Js. let us think from another way; suppose you had J and returned back to your home country and stayed there for more than 2 years, then you got new J. Is this means that your second J is not subject to the 2 year home country because you already spent more than 2 years in home country after the first one? If so, you don’t have to apply for waiver and you can apply for H or GC during your stay in US in your subsequent J. My thinking is not, and the clock will start again and any third or fourth J will invalidate the old time. I know one colleague had a J (2.5 years in US), returned back for about 4 years and get another J, spent another one year or so in US and he returned back again almost 2 years ago. I do not have details about his situation and if he is subject during his second stay or not. The funding source in the second J MAY play a role here, in my example he was funded by his home country government in his second J and according to the agreement between the US and other countries, he suppose to return back for 2 years because of funding.
 
according to a very good lawyer - the time is reset, but the good news is that you only have to "serve one sentence".
 
Plot Thickens...

Many thanks to LucyMO, mmed, and MPGGPM for the responses. From the fact that they take completely opposite viewpoints, I guess my situation is a mess. Let me thicken the plot by a few details which are probably completely irrelevant from the perpective of a J1 adjudicator, but do add a dimension to the complexity.

My second J1 stay ended more than 10 years ago. I had returned to my home country, and within a few months came back to the US on G4 visa for staff of international organizations. I have lived in the US ever since, got married and had two lovely children.

I would like a career change, but as soon as I leave my international organization, the J1 HRR kicks in, and I should leave the country, never mind my US wife, US kids and our US mortgage...

Any ideas on how to solve this mess without living without my family for two years to fulfill HRR, or dragging all of them to my home country? Many thanks for your thoughts.
 
MELB said:
Many thanks to LucyMO, mmed, and MPGGPM for the responses. From the fact that they take completely opposite viewpoints, I guess my situation is a mess. Let me thicken the plot by a few details which are probably completely irrelevant from the perpective of a J1 adjudicator, but do add a dimension to the complexity.

My second J1 stay ended more than 10 years ago. I had returned to my home country, and within a few months came back to the US on G4 visa for staff of international organizations. I have lived in the US ever since, got married and had two lovely children.

I would like a career change, but as soon as I leave my international organization, the J1 HRR kicks in, and I should leave the country, never mind my US wife, US kids and our US mortgage...

Any ideas on how to solve this mess without living without my family for two years to fulfill HRR, or dragging all of them to my home country? Many thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

The only way is to get a waiver from this requiremrnt on any of the waiver categories which fits your situation. If you got G, O, H, F ...etc, the 2 Y HRR is still there and to get rid of it; either return back or waiver, no other option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top