AOS from J-1 Visa Two Year Home Country Requirement Questions

[kgund77 4]

Hi all , my fiancé and I are getting married in September, and we've just started preparing our documents to apply for his marriage-based green card. I am a US citizen and he is a Bulgarian citizen. He did two separate J-1 visa summers of work in the US in 2016 and 2017. Both visas on their face say very clearly that he is not subject to the two year home country requirement, and he additionally has the DS-2019 from his 2017 J-1 visa which confirms that he is not subject to the requirement. I just want to make 100% sure here that this will suffice to show USCIS that he is not subject to the requirement - there's no reason for us to obtain a No Objection letter from the Bulgarian government too, right? 

 

Another issue is that he no longer has the DS-2019 from his 2016 J-1 visa, even though he does have the one from 2017. We have contacted his J-1 sponsor to see if they still have a copy, but as it was six years ago I'm not hopeful. Will not having the DS-2019 form from his first J-1 visa be a problem, or will USCIS overlook that given that the 2016 visa on its face, which we do have a copy of, clearly says he is not subject to the two year requirement? 

 

Final question: he renewed his passport last year and the Bulgarian consulate took his old expired passport, which had the original J-1 visas in it. Luckily he took scans of the J-1 pages before he gave it in, but we just noticed there are watermarks from the scanning app at the bottom which can no longer be removed. They don't obscure any vital information, just a bit of the visa number at the very bottom of the visa. Will this be ok? Since we don't have the old passport anymore we unfortunately can't take a new photo of the visas. Relatedly, is he required to submit pictures of the info pages of the passport he entered the US on, by any chance? He never took a photo of the old passport's info page. Hoping that isn't necessary.

 

Thanks! Sorry for all the questions, just want to make sure we get this right the first time. 

 

 

[kgund77 4]

Just to follow up on that last question - luckily we do have photos of his US entry stamps from the old passport, as they were just above the J-1 visa pages and included in the scans he took. We just don't have the info page. 

[Family 3,508]

Sounds like you have legible copies the clearly show the annotation on the visa page that state he is NOT SUBJECT to the 2 years out. 
You are fine to file with what you have, and though you may clearly explain it at filing, don’t be surprised or worried if they RFE, simply respond with same argument.

 

In your favor is the fact that his 2nd J-1 would not have been issued if the 1st had the 2 yr out requirement. 
 

[Family 3,508]

In the meantime you can file a FOIA record for his visas w DOS , it’s free, but no need to wait it

https://foia.state.gov/Request/VisaRecords.aspx

[kgund77 4]

@Family this is a great tip, thank you! Just checking that noncitizens are able to make FOIA requests? 

[Family 3,508]

Yes