Letter to replace an IAP-66/DS-2019 (J1 - 2 yr. restriction Question)

[Blake and Jeanie 4]

My wife, the beneficiary, originally came to the US under a J1 Visa with the FLEX program, which requires her to reside in her country of origin (Russia) for 2 years when she leaves. She is currently in Russia now, and we are trying to get a "NO OBJECTION" waiver for this 2 year restriction. I was under the impression that we would need the IAP-66 in order to apply for this waiver.

It has taken us many attempts, but we finally got a response from the Dept. of State which seems promising:

We have verified your wife’s participation in the 1999-2000 FLEX program.

We will be able to provide a replacement letter for your IAP-66. Please be aware that the U.S. Department of State no longer keeps hard or electronic copies of IAP-66, instead our office (the Youth Programs Division) provides a signed official letter that carries all the same information as it was presented on your IAP-66. Please be aware that this letter only acts as a replacement document for the DS-2019 document, nothing beyond.

I will be contacting you once we send out the letter to the address that you provided us earlier.

Has anyone else applied for this waiver with a letter replacement? I'm a bit confused about what the next step is once we receive this letter, and I'm concerned about the acceptability of this letter as a replacement for the actual IAP-66.

Please, any help or advice is welcome!

Blake (Jeanie and I both post under this acct., sorry for any confusion!)

[Blake and Jeanie 4]

So...nobody has been in this situation?

[Blake and Jeanie 4]

I would really appreciate some kind of feedback, surely we're not the first couple on this website to go through this?

[Blake and Jeanie 4]

Still waiting for some helpful response...

or any response at all.

[Sgt. McGee 27]

Still waiting for some helpful response...

or any response at all.

I asked a (potentially) similar question the other day (here), and haven't seen anything, either.

The site seems to be fairly narrowly focused on certain issues that pop up again and again, but if you're outside of those issues, you're on your own, I guess.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Sgt. McGee

[valh1b 0]

I asked a (potentially) similar question the other day (here), and haven't seen anything, either.

The site seems to be fairly narrowly focused on certain issues that pop up again and again, but if you're outside of those issues, you're on your own, I guess.

Hi Guys,

Can you tell me how you managed to contact the department of state to get a copy/letter for the lost document? I need my DS 2019 to get my work visa and it's been 9 years, so I really can't figure out where I put it.

Your help would be much appreciated. (and I hope you managed to get your copy finally).

Thanks in advance,

Val.

[valh1b 0]

I asked a (potentially) similar question the other day (here), and haven't seen anything, either.

The site seems to be fairly narrowly focused on certain issues that pop up again and again, but if you're outside of those issues, you're on your own, I guess.

Hi Guys,

Can you tell me how you managed to contact the department of state to get a copy/letter for the lost document? I need my DS 2019 to get my work visa and it's been 9 years, so I really can't figure out where I put it.

Your help would be much appreciated. (and I hope you managed to get your copy finally).

Thanks in advance,

Val.

[pdepot 0]

my situation is a bit different from yours. Can you tell me how you were able to contact the state dept? I lost my IAP66/ds2019 for the last 22 years. I have been trying to get my sch to issue me a copy but they wont. I cannot move forward to change status because of this damn thing. I came here with J1. Any help is appreciative.

[Sgt. McGee 27]

We actually ended up being ok without a cleaner copy of the IAP-66. The copy we had was only sort of legible, but I wrote an explanation stating that the program that she came over with didn't receive government support, and that all fees/costs were paid by the sponsoring family.

It sort of depends on why you need the document. We needed it because my wife didn't have her original passport with the visa stamp, so we were worried about proving that there was no 2 year HRR. Our other piece of supporting evidence was that she wasn't part of any category listed on the skills list at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_4514.html. (Czech Republic is no longer subject to the skills list, and was retroactively removed). If you're trying to prove that you have no HRR, that may be a good starting point.

If you need the document for something else (i.e., they've specifically requested that document), you probably need to work with DOS to get a copy.