AOS- I-485 and old J1 visas, help!!

[JimmyJane 23]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm filing the I-485 and came across a section in the instructions regarding J1 visas, saying if you ever held one you have to submit ungodly amounts of evidence of it...

 

Quote

13. Documentation Regarding J-1 or J-2 Exchange Visitor Status If you previously held or currently hold J-1 (principal) or J-2 (dependent) nonimmigrant exchange visitor status, you must submit copies of all relevant Forms IAP-66 and/or Forms DS-2019, Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1) Status, ever issued to you (if available). You must also submit copies of all available J-1 or J-2 nonimmigrant visas issued to you, and copies of all available Form I-94 and passport pages with entry stamps showing your admission to the United States in J-1 or J-2 status. In addition, if your J status made you subject to the 2-year foreign residence requirement of INA section 212(e), you must submit documentation to show that you complied with the foreign residence requirement, have been granted a waiver of the requirement before filing Form I-485, or were issued a favorable waiver recommendation letter from DOS before filing Form I-485. You can show you complied with the requirement by submitting evidence to prove you resided in the appropriate home country for at least two years since your exchange visitor program ended. For information about waiver of the requirement, see the Instructions for Form I-612, Application for Waiver of the Foreign Residence Requirement.

 

I worked at US summer camps for 8 summers, so had 8 J1 visas issued between 1999 and 2010.  

 

The only evidence I have of them are the visas and stamps in my passport, which I can copy as some form of evidence.  I do not have the DS-2019 forms (never thought I would need them, clearly!)

 

I don't see how the camp counselor program participants can be subject to the Foreign Residence Requirement of two years, as I could get the J1 visas for it in consecutive years- but if I'm wrong, it's been well over two years since I was in the US on a J1 visa... Would I still need to prove residency in my home country? What would be good evidence of this? I would only really have payslips from work, as I was not on rental agreements etc.

 

If anyone has any experience of this weird little snafu, I'd love to get some info/thoughts/instructions not to worry about it all!

 

Many thanks for any help!

 

 

 

[clauandgio 22]

I dis not see this question at all while filling the form. That explains a lot lol. I had my interview for the green card 4 days ago and the officer asked about my J1. (I worked for 3 months in 2011). He asked me for a copy of my old passport with thr visa and the stamps showing that I didnt stay iligally after the visa expired. I didnt have my old passport with me, so he said he will send me a RFE letter to send that evidence.

 

After a few hours I received a message from USCIS saying that my green card was being produced and no RFE letter on its way.

 

Dont stress out about it, make copies of the passport, visa and stamps and add it to your file

[JimmyJane 23]

Thanks for the reply! That doesn't sound as scary as the firm made out 😊 I've sent in copies of all the visas and will hope for the best!

[Suudsu 66]

On 8/4/2017 at 7:05 AM, JimmyJane said:

Thanks for the reply! That doesn't sound as scary as the firm made out 😊 I've sent in copies of all the visas and will hope for the best!

 

You could try requesting your international movement records from the Australian government as proof of spending time in Australia.

https://www.border.gov.au/Forms/Documents/1359.pdf

[Elethiomel 86]

I've always been curious about the Summer Work and Travel J1 for foreign students and the 2 year rule. My visa didn't have annotations saying I was exempt but I know people who got them three years back to back.

[sofyab 2]

This is going to be a non-issue for those who did Work and Travel or similar program. I was subjected to two-year home residency because I was a high school exchange student sponsored by US government. As far as I know it also applies to some PhD students and college exchange students

[kwoodruff 4]

My husband is in the same situation (worked for three summers in 2013, 2014 and 2015) for 4 months at a time on a J1 visa at a summer camp in New York teaching martial arts. He's now applying for an adjustment of status/green card from a K1 visa.

 

Did you have any issues with this? Any recommendations for what "proof" to show? Does he just need to show the copies of the visas from those years?

[JimmyJane 23]

19 hours ago, kwoodruff said:

My husband is in the same situation (worked for three summers in 2013, 2014 and 2015) for 4 months at a time on a J1 visa at a summer camp in New York teaching martial arts. He's now applying for an adjustment of status/green card from a K1 visa.

 

Did you have any issues with this? Any recommendations for what "proof" to show? Does he just need to show the copies of the visas from those years?

Hey there!  Nope, I did the AOS from K1 and the J1 never came up as an issue- just supply all the documents/copies that the AOS requires ( I can't recall exactly what it calls for, but I likely included photocopies of the visa pages- always good to include more than less!).  Good luck, you should be totally fine on this front!

[MeghanK 627]

On 5/29/2019 at 6:10 PM, kwoodruff said:

My husband is in the same situation (worked for three summers in 2013, 2014 and 2015) for 4 months at a time on a J1 visa at a summer camp in New York teaching martial arts. He's now applying for an adjustment of status/green card from a K1 visa.

 

Did you have any issues with this? Any recommendations for what "proof" to show? Does he just need to show the copies of the visas from those years?

We are in this situation too and have literally NOTHING from the J1, not even the passport with the visa. We had to send like 400 FOIA requests (you could try a FOIA for the forms) and emails to companies and home countries and got back a bunch of "we have no record." Lol. We are a bit far out from getting to AOS interview but all we will have are FOIA email responses. 🤷 Immigration is so fun 😂

[kwoodruff 4]

9 minutes ago, MeghanK said:

We are in this situation too and have literally NOTHING from the J1, not even the passport with the visa. We had to send like 400 FOIA requests (you could try a FOIA for the forms) and emails to companies and home countries and got back a bunch of "we have no record." Lol. We are a bit far out from getting to AOS interview but all we will have are FOIA email responses. 🤷 Immigration is so fun 😂

So fun! My husband's passport with all the copies of the visas in them was damaged after he jumped in a pool with it in his pocket in 2015 (*sigh*). He got a replacement passport shortly thereafter, but the visas were illegible and even though he still has the old passport, it can't be used for this AOS paperwork.

 

For the proof of each J1 visa, we're going to submit the paperwork he kept from each. It's titled "U.S. Department of State Certification of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1) Status." It has his name, details and the dates the visa is approved for. 2 of the 3 have an official "ADMITTED" seal on them. I'm hoping that's enough. Do you know if you have copies of those anywhere? I guess you would have already exhausted that option!

 

Either way I wish you luck. I've been working on compiling these packets for the 485/864/131/765 all night..... Ugh!