J1 waiver and STEP (fullbright).Good lawyers? Any opinions?

Emily Souder

New Member
I need to waive my home residency requirement. I received about $200,000 from USAID in funding to my program. I will be getting married soon and think I might be eligible for the exceptional hardship waiver(i heard it's more likely to succeed in my case that No objection). Does anyone have experience with this? Any advice? Do you know any good lawyers? I'm so scared of having to go back to Egypt.
 
Your task is going to be tough. The "exceptional category" waiver is given NOT due to your hardship, but rather to the exceptional hardship caused to your U.S. citizen/permanent resident child and/or spouse either if they'll be separated from you, or if they follow you to your home country for 2 years. You must prove their hardship will be "exceptional" first to USCIS, and if they approve your application, also to the State Department (which is the tougher obstacle). When I was a grad student, a colleague of mine was impregnated by her husband (USC). Despite their attempts, she had to go back to her home country (Turkey) with her baby.

By the way, you can do the 2 years (730 days) in several visits, if your legal status in the US allows it.

I was a Fulbrightee and didn't even try to obtain a waiver - I just went to my home country for 2 years.


Good luck!
 
Your task is going to be tough. The "exceptional category" waiver is given NOT due to your hardship, but rather to the exceptional hardship caused to your U.S. citizen/permanent resident child and/or spouse either if they'll be separated from you, or if they follow you to your home country for 2 years. You must prove their hardship will be "exceptional" first to USCIS, and if they approve your application, also to the State Department (which is the tougher obstacle). When I was a grad student, a colleague of mine was impregnated by her husband (USC). Despite their attempts, she had to go back to her home country (Turkey) with her baby.

By the way, you can do the 2 years (730 days) in several visits, if your legal status in the US allows it.

I was a Fulbrightee and didn't even try to obtain a waiver - I just went to my home country for 2 years.


Good luck!
Thank you for your response. I know that it has to be exceptional hardship to my spouse. I guess I didn't make that clear in the post. Do you know if exceptional hardship is more likely to work than no objection in case of receiving lots of funding from USAID?
 
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