Hi,
First of all, thanks to everybody who has posted on this forum. It has helped me a lot on getting my waiver. I thought I should share too.
A few days ago I received my waiver based on No Objection Letter and I was subject to the 2-year rule because of USG funding.
The employees at my institution have never before been found to be subject to the rule, since we receive goverment funding in an "indirect" way. So the attorneys of the company sent two consecutive advisory oppinions on my behalf to the DOS before I actually applied for the waiver. Both advisory oppinions came back saying I was subject to the two year rule base on USG. I started the waiver process on my own, since I believed I could go faster than the attorneys.
Here is my timelines:
November 1st, filled online waiver application.
November 2nd, send the papers on the mail to DOS and a fax to my embassy requesting the NOL.
November 13th, got the copy of the NOL from my embassy.
November 20th, my case appeared on the DOS website
November 24th, DOS website acknowledges receipt of NOL
November 28th, Favorable recommendation
Dec, 12, received the DOS favorable recommendation by mail.
Dec, 13, recieved the waiver from USCIS.
Well, this was really quick! I imagine the fact that two advisory oppinions were requested before, and they included many documentation including my sponsor/supervisors interest on my work, was enough for DOS and they did not requested sponsors view.
I must add that, at least in my case, both advisory oppinions and the NOL waiver request keep the same case number, so they files are probably kept all together.
Good luck to everybody!