2 year physical home country presence requirement - how is it calculated?

[melimelo 0]

Hello,

I studied in the US for a year under a J1 visa that is subject to the 2-year home country presence requirement.

I returned to Canada (my home country ) on July 4th 2014. Since then I have taken multiple short trips to the USA (at least once a month, usually for a few days) to visit my boyfriend in the USA. How is the 2 year requirement computed? Is it a total of 730 days?

How are the days in the US counted? i.e. if I flew out to the US on June 30th and came back July 5th on an overnight in the morning to Canada. Have I been away for 6 days? Or does it count at 4 days? It would make a huge difference to my total number of days given how many trips I've taken and I'm waiting for those 2 years to expire to apply for permanent residency in the US...

Thanks!

[TBoneTX 43,006]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the Student & Exchange Visitor Visas forum -- topic involves J-1 calculations. ***

Edited May 18, 2015 by TBoneTX

[Unidentified 2,930]

How are you planning on applying for permanent residency? Marrying your boyfriend?

[Boiler 43,387]

Why not get a waiver?

[melimelo 0]

We're planning on getting married.

I am not eligible for any of the waiver programs (I am a physician). My only other option is to het an O-1, but that wouldn't waive the 2-year requirement, merely post-pone it.

[Boiler 43,387]

If you enter today - one day.

Leave tomorrow - two days

Trust you have been recording all your trips.

[melimelo 0]

Is the rule the same if I'm travelling to a non-US country?

[Boiler 43,387]

Not sure what you mean by rule but if you are talking about days out of the country it would be the same.

[Unidentified 2,930]

You totally want to double check this but I have heard that spending time outside your home country does not count towards the 2 year requirement.

[erik_23ph 12]

The days you spent outside your country of residence will not be counted.

For example:

Jan 1, 2014 to March 31, 2014 - you were in Canada

Apr 1, 2014 to July 31, 2014 - you were in the UK

Aug 1, 2014 to Sep 30, 2014 - you were in Canada

Based on the above dates, it will be counted only as 5 months.

[blahblahblog 36]

From the law "has resided and been physically present in the country of his nationality or his last residence for an aggregate of at least two years following departure from the United States". You should count the days in Canada, not the days not in the USA. In your case, for example, you had spent 4 days in Canada.

[melimelo 0]

If I understand correctly, only days where the whole 24 hrs were spent in Canada count towards the requirement. If leaving Canada at 11pm on a flight to the US, that day would not count towards fulfilling the 2 year requirement, is that correct?

[Boiler 43,387]

When I have seen it mentioned before they have used time of entry to US.

[blahblahblog 36]

When I have seen it mentioned before they have used time of entry to US.

The 2YHRR from J-1 isn't about staying outside the US, but residing in your original country. You also need to be actually residing in your country. Say you're from Canada, but got a job in the UK and spent a week in Canada for vacations, that week doesn't count (although a good lawyer could make it count).

If I understand correctly, only days where the whole 24 hrs were spent in Canada count towards the requirement. If leaving Canada at 11pm on a flight to the US, that day would not count towards fulfilling the 2 year requirement, is that correct?

I think it's OK to count that as a day in Canada. But how many days would you lose with the most conservative counting?

[melimelo 0]

With the most conservative counting I'll have been in Canada 337 days between July 4th 2014 and end of August 2015. With the least conservative counting (counting all partial days as days spent in Canada) it adds up to 361, so it's a significant difference (probably will add up to at least 1-2 month difference over the 2 years).

Mel