TakeAStand
New Member
My husband is a Fulbright scholar from Western Europe. I am a US citizen with a PhD, currently in a competitive Ivy League post-doc. We met in grad school and married a little more than a year ago, after several years of dating. Last January, following Obama's (falsely) hopeful State of the Union address, where he urged the government not to send back highly educated individuals to compete against the US, we filed the J1-waiver application based on the NOS. We had no trouble receiving the NOS from Italy- it was sent to the DOS a few weeks after we requested it. Then, the hellish waiting really began as the US government dragged its feet asking for "recommendations" from mysterious entities who the DOS would not (or could not) name to us. My husband spoke several times with the Fulbright Commission in his home country, who openly supported his application, especially as there are no jobs in his field in his country and returning Fulbright scholars have a notoriously difficult time obtaining employment there. As the months stretched on, we tried everything from working with our state Senator to writing to the President. While our Senator was kind and open to the idea of helping, in reality, he didn't accomplish anything. From the President, we received back a screenshot of the portion of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that details the HRR, a slap in the face for 2 PhDs who are well acquanited with the law and were reaching out for a little human compassion. Why bother writing back at all if that is what you're going to send? In July, after 6 months of waiting, my husband's waiver request was denied with absolutely no justification of the decision. There is no appeal process for waiver based on NOS. At this point, both my spouse and myself have applied for jobs in Canada, where they welcome the immigration requests of highly educated, professional individuals. I am saddened to be forced out of my own country, where I have lived, worked and paid taxes my entire life, but this is apparently the care that the US gives to its citizens and their families. I am sharing this story because I want to warn all of you who are considering applying for the waiver to not waste your time - for every 1 waiver granted, there are far more denied. Why are we fighting to stay in a country that doesn't want us or our partners? Frankly, they don't DESERVE to have us contribute to their crumbling economy and infrastructure. There are many countries that will welcome our skills and education, and I, for one, am excited for the opportunity to make one of these my home.