J1 visa waiver NOS 2021 Timeline

[JBRE22022 37]

@CAF48 Good, the CNPq part should have been taken care of with the NOS letter. It is important also to check if there were no other sponsorships such as Fulbright book support allowances and the like, these can make the waiver concession much more difficult. 

Regarding EAD, please check carefully. J-2 derivatives (likely your wife current status) are eligible for an EAD, provided this work is not intended to support the J1 visa holder. H4 derivatives (partners of H1s) however can only have EADs in some circumstances - usually after 6 years with the visa or an approved I140. Maybe you have a different exception that qualifies that I am not aware of. The reference in USCIS is this https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/employment-authorization-for-certain-h-4-dependent-spouses

[noobjections 12]

28 minutes ago, CAF48 said:

Sorry @noobjections. I just saw your post. I took around 2 weeks, right? Is there a way to check the USCIS status? Thank you! 

I received FR on June 29th from DOS and then got approved by USCIS on July 13th. 

After you get FR from DOS and they transfer it to USCIS, you get a receipt number to check the status online.  Mine was sent to my lawyer so I didn’t personally have it. She was checking everyday and finally told me it was granted. I received the waiver/receipt notice in the mail on July 22nd. 

[JBRE22022 37]

47 minutes ago, qwopqwop said:

I see new people who are waiting for DoS approval are joining here. Just a word of advice, the same emails are copy-pasted to everyone. I don't think the person replying to emails actually checks the case status in any way beyond looking at the tracker like we do. Fun fact - we received a response to the congressional inquiry literally the day before the approval went through, and we got the exact same copy pasted reply as usual. 

 

Some highlights you may have seen before:

 

"No additional action is needed by you at this time."

"The Waiver Review Division is working to process this case. Processing times for waiver recommendations by the Department of State, Waiver Review Division vary depending on the basis under which you request a waiver of the two-year home-country physical presence requirement.  The processing time of twelve to sixteen weeks for No Objection cases is an estimated timeframe and sometimes can take longer.  The processing time for applications begins only when all required documents have been received. The requests are taken in order of receipt."

 

"We assure you that your request will be processed as soon as possible.  You may continue to monitor the status of your request by going to https://j1visawaiverrecommendation.state.gov/ and using your case number."  

 

"Our Waiver Review Division is making every effort to process cases as expeditiously as possible for our J-1 visa waiver applicants. However, there can be no guarantee that your waiver will be finished by a particular date."

 

My case took literally exactly 16 weeks from the date of "receipt". In the end, my embassy re-sent the NOS and the case got approved in 5 days.

 @qwopqwop That's a very interesting post. I did get some of the answers above. I will second @madovi in asking whether the NOS was flagged as received in the J1 waiver status website when you request the embassy to re-send it. I wonder if asking the embassy to re send the NOS statement might prompt some action. Also, you mentioned a congressional inquiry, can you give more information on that? Is your waiver only NOS based or are there other basis? Thanks ! 

[qwopqwop 5]

@JBRE22022 @madovi

 

Yes, the NOS was flagged as received, but they lost it. It was originally sent in October, but I got an email saying late January they didn't have it. I had the embassy re-send it, they forwarded it on the same email thread they originally used and cc'd me, so I was assured that it was delivered both times. Then nothing happened, I sent a follow up email and they then replied confirming receipt. It still didn't appear on the tracker. I had to email them like three more times until they added it to the tracker in early March, and they backdated it so it appeared as if it was "received" along my other documents. (I say "received" because they lost my documents and emailed me to send pdf copies of everything 4 months after I originally sent it thru mail. This includes the receipt for the money order, so make sure to save it!) Then I kept emailing to ask for a status check and I got the copy pasted replies assuring me everything was fine.

 

Shortly before my 16 weeks was up, I got a random email from my embassy saying they issued me a No Objection Statement. I frantically called them asking what was up -- they didn't tell me anything except that it was issued upon my request, which it most certainly wasn't. They sent me a copy of the NOS, and it was this very interesting (almost passive-aggressive!) newly issued NOS, that extremely clearly indicated that it was being re-issued, it even included a screenshot of the tracker webpage showing it was supposed to be originally received in January. It felt like an official protest by the embassy. I got the approval 5 days after that.

 

My working theory is that the people in the waiver office realized my 16 weeks were almost up, checked in their system to see why it wasn't finished, saw that my NOS was still missing (because they use an outdated paper based filing system), wanted to email me to ask to send my NOS, realized they already did that 4 months ago, so they sent it to the Embassy directly. I have zero proof for it, but at this point I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt for anything.

 

Sending a congressional inquiry is easier than you think: go to your Senator's or House member's webpage, find the link that says "Request Help with a Federal Agency", fill out the forms (they may ask you to print out forms, sign them with an actual pen, then scan it), email to the specified address, then wait. It's very hit or miss -- I contacted 4 senators' offices (2 from my university's state, 2 from where I'll be employed), one responded within the week, one responded after 5 months (funnily enough, this senator is famously very pro-immigration), two never responded. Just send out requests and go with whoever responds. We sent two congressional inquiries (the reply to one of them is one of the highlights I included in the previous post).

 

I also wrote to the White House in February (they also have the "request help" option under Contact Us), which they eventually actually forwarded to DoS to my great surprise, and I got an official letter from the Department of State Outreach and Inquiries Division -- but White House was also 5 months late at reading my letter and forwarding it, so the DoS reply just essentially said "yeah we already approved your application, what else do you want from us? Go talk to USCIS". 

 

As of now, I'm waiting for USCIS to approve me about 1.5 months after receipt notice. We sent another congressional inquiry, and the reply was that I'm pending a background check. I guess it's because I'm from a less than desirable country? Apparently living in the US for 6 years and getting a PhD from a Tier 1 US university means nothing.

 

Sorry I'm making this a bit of a rant -- it's just so frustrating when they pull the trick of not acknowledging receipt so they don't look like they were delayed and everything was just fine. I lost 6 months of my career to this. 

 

PS. I would advise trying to send them actual physical mailed letters along the usual emails -- it felt like they have a better success rate, because they probably are not being read by the same person who replies to the emails. I found out they lost my documents shortly after I sent them a physical letter. For 4 months they did not reply to my emails asking if my documents were received...

[JBRE22022 37]

@qwopqwop Thanks for sharing your story, hope it gets solved soon. Regarding the congressional and White House requests, did you have an American citizen filing them on your behalf? 

[qwopqwop 5]

No, you are allowed to do it yourself. If you have any doubts regarding eligibility, I'd suggest going ahead and filing a request -- instead of worrying about it, let them tell you if they can help or not. I know the Senator's office that I worked with has also helped tons of other J-1 waiver cases; they were very familiar with the process.

[Pinguina 6]

On 7/21/2022 at 12:44 PM, CAF48 said:

HI everyone.

This is my first post here. Just wanted to share my case and timeline. 

I submitted all my documents Jan 2022. 

My DS2019 will expire Aug 15th. I guess I would still have a month of grace period to wait for the results but it looks like I am going to have to go back to my country and wait there? I have an Assistant Professor position lined up to start Aug 16th....

 

Any opinions?

Department of State Advisory Opinion Finding: Pending

Item	Action	Date
Sponsor Views (Received)	Received	July, 11 2022
Request for Sponsor Views	Sent	July, 07 2022
Fee	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-3035	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-2019	Received	April, 14 2022
No Objection Statement	Received	April, 14 2022
Passport Data Page	Received	April, 14 2022
Form G-28	Received	April, 14 2022
Statement Of Reason	Received	April, 14 2022
Other	Received	April, 14 2022

Hi, do you have any updates on this? I was also supposed to start my tenure track today but here we are  All my documents were received by April 21 (one week after you) and my case is still pending, even after getting my congressperson to inquire.

[madovi 2]

 

this is my timeline. I sent my documents in November 15th. When did you receive the waiver after the Final Recommendation ? How long did it take?

[noobjections 12]

59 minutes ago, madovi said:

 

this is my timeline. I sent my documents in November 15th. When did you receive the waiver after the Final Recommendation ? How long did it take?

Took about 5 days to get it in the mail. 

[CAF48 2]

6 hours ago, Pinguina said:

Hi, do you have any updates on this? I was also supposed to start my tenure track today but here we are  All my documents were received by April 21 (one week after you) and my case is still pending, even after getting my congressperson to inquire.

Hi. I have updates! 

I got a favorable recommendation July 28th. 

I then got a letter from USCIS saying that they received my case and giving me a number to check my case status (Aug 2nd). 

Upon checking USCIS website, I got the J waiver approval around August 10th. I am now waiting for the official approval letter from USCIS to arrive in the mail.

 

It looks like things move fast once the DOS submits a favorable recommendation.

 

Good luck to everyone! 

Here is how the timeline looked:

Department of State Advisory Opinion Finding: Favorable Recommendation

Item	Action	Date
Recommendation	Sent	July, 28 2022
Sponsor Views (Received)	Received	July, 11 2022
Request for Sponsor Views	Sent	July, 07 2022
Fee	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-3035	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-2019	Received	April, 14 2022
No Objection Statement	Received	April, 14 2022
Passport Data Page	Received	April, 14 2022
Form G-28	Received	April, 14 2022
Statement Of Reason	Received	April, 14 2022
Other	Received	April, 14 2022

[Pinguina 6]

1 hour ago, CAF48 said:

Hi. I have updates! 

I got a favorable recommendation July 28th. 

I then got a letter from USCIS saying that they received my case and giving me a number to check my case status (Aug 2nd). 

Upon checking USCIS website, I got the J waiver approval around August 10th. I am now waiting for the official approval letter from USCIS to arrive in the mail.

 

It looks like things move fast once the DOS submits a favorable recommendation.

 

Good luck to everyone! 

Here is how the timeline looked:

Department of State Advisory Opinion Finding: Favorable Recommendation

Item	Action	Date
Recommendation	Sent	July, 28 2022
Sponsor Views (Received)	Received	July, 11 2022
Request for Sponsor Views	Sent	July, 07 2022
Fee	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-3035	Received	April, 14 2022
Form DS-2019	Received	April, 14 2022
No Objection Statement	Received	April, 14 2022
Passport Data Page	Received	April, 14 2022
Form G-28	Received	April, 14 2022
Statement Of Reason	Received	April, 14 2022
Other	Received	April, 14 2022

That's awesome!! So did you file for H1B after you got the receipt from USCIS? Or did you do it right after DoS sent FR?

[qwopqwop 5]

 

5 hours ago, madovi said:

 

this is my timeline. I sent my documents in November 15th. When did you receive the waiver after the Final Recommendation ? How long did it take?

I got my USCIS approval after about 1.5-2 months - I think I'm an outlier case, but it's possible. Entire process took about 11 months: sent documents on September of last year originally, DoS marked it received after 4 months, approved it after 4 months, USCIS marked it received after 1.5 months, approved it after 1.5 months.

[CAF48 2]

50 minutes ago, Pinguina said:

That's awesome!! So did you file for H1B after you got the receipt from USCIS? Or did you do it right after DoS sent FR?

H1B petition was filed on the same day I saw the case was approved on the USCIS website!

[Jysv 1]

Hi everyone, I have been reading this forum. It is my first post. Here is my case:

Case Background 

• Waiver basis: No Objection Statement 
• Country of Citizenship: Spain
• US government funding: National Institutes of Health (NIH) 

 

Documents sent: 02/02/2022

Documents appearing as “received”: 04/06/2022

NOS took a while to appear but at the end appeared as “received”: 04/05/2022

16 weeks after, DOS contacted NIH for sponsor views, NIH replied very fast (the next day): 07/28/2022

I am now more than 19 weeks since the documents and the NOS were “received” at the DOS and I do not have the recommendation yet.

I got a job and I am not sure that I will be able to keep it longer,  because I am keeping delaying my starting day.

It is extremely frustrating.

[Pinguina 6]

1 hour ago, Jysv said:

Hi everyone, I have been reading this forum. It is my first post. Here is my case:

Case Background 

• Waiver basis: No Objection Statement 
• Country of Citizenship: Spain
• US government funding: National Institutes of Health (NIH) 

 

Documents sent: 02/02/2022

Documents appearing as “received”: 04/06/2022

NOS took a while to appear but at the end appeared as “received”: 04/05/2022

16 weeks after, DOS contacted NIH for sponsor views, NIH replied very fast (the next day): 07/28/2022

I am now more than 19 weeks since the documents and the NOS were “received” at the DOS and I do not have the recommendation yet.

I got a job and I am not sure that I will be able to keep it longer,  because I am keeping delaying my starting day.

It is extremely frustrating.

 

 

I feel you. I also have a job that I was supposed to start last Monday and now they’re trying to push my start date to January :( all my documents were received by April 21st but still nothing (17 weeks). My congressperson contacted DoS but that wasn’t useful. I think all we can do is wait.