Question about j1 visa home residence.

[Sean and Alice 0]

My wife was here in America on a J1 visa for a school program and we fell madly in love and got married in March. She has since had to go back to Brazil to finish up 1 class there and because on her J1 visa it has a home residency requirment where she cannot come back to the US for 2 years.

Does being married effect that residency requirment at all? I've heard both ways, that under US law marrage is higher so it doesn't matter but I want to be sure about our circumstances. I would think that I still need to clear it up or wait for the restriction to go away.

I can apply for a waiver for it but would cost over $800 (hard for me to come up with in addition to the reg. visa paperwork) and it might not get approved so I might just be throwing our money away (from what I've read the best option for us would be an Hardship Waiver and I've heard those are very hard to get approved).

Staying here would definitly be the best thing for our future as I have a good job and am about to finish my degree also. If we can't get around it I will be moving to Brazil to be with and wait it out I guess

Thanks for any help.

Sean and Alice

[Sean and Alice 0]

Bump, no one knows? A USCIS email I have says I should do I-130, then I-129f and it didnt answer my question about the residency requirment, so should I just ignore the residency reqiurment and start the paperwork?

[payxibka 10,048]

2 yr HRR does not prevent you from petitioning...

I am unaware of being married to a USC "trumping" the need to fulfill the requirement short of a waiver...

[pushbrk 13,397]

Bump, no one knows? A USCIS email I have says I should do I-130, then I-129f and it didnt answer my question about the residency requirment, so should I just ignore the residency reqiurment and start the paperwork?

Your original understanding was correct. You would have to use the waiver process to bypass the home stay requirement.