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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.

I once got an email from them on Saturday saying my NOS was missing (which it wasn’t, but that’s beside the point).

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.

@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...

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.

Interesting, how did you file the request? I filed it over the phone and had the feeling that the agent didn’t really capture the meaning of what I was trying to say. re: name change, I think it happened to someone else on this thread a couple weeks ago, but they got their approval shortly after.

Yes, I applied for an expedite on the basis of severe financial loss saying I was supposed to start my job in a few weeks. Got denied in 5 days. Submitted a followup request, but not very hopeful about it. It seems that these cases either take less than a week or more than a month. I can’t figure out a pattern to it…

Yes, always SB. At some point I switched to starting my emails with "Hello SB" BTW, am I the only one who didn't get approval within 10 days of USCIS receipt notice? Mine was issued June 17 and I'm still waiting...

My case was received on June 21 (FR on May 4) but I still didn’t get my approval. I’m wondering if that is because I had to leave the US before it was approved? @dcg1011 are you currently in the US?

It's similar to a Tier 1 call except the person you are talking to is a trained immigration officer (as opposed to a call center agent). They sound a bit more authoritative and apparently have a bit deeper access to the system. But they just told me to email lockboxsupport again, which still hasn't replied to me. But I think things are starting to move quickly after they just sat on all the incoming cases for a month. I had emailed the public engagement email address for USCIS last week, saying nobody's I-612s are being processed. I received this reply, which alleviated a tiny bit of the frustration because it was the first acknowledgment I got from them that something was up. Sharing here for reference: Another thing that's weird is that I received my receipt notice dated 6/17. But I called them on 6/21 and the agent still could not see my case in the system. I found out I was getting my receipt notice because of USPS Informed Delivery, which emails you a picture of incoming envelopes for the day every morning. After getting it I called them to file the expedite, gave them my newly-acquired receipt number and it showed up on their system no problem. Very odd... Anyway, I think a lot of receipt notices will go out this week and next. The critical question is: will they be able to stick the 10-day-ish timeline from receipt to approval that they had around March, or will this stage also be subject to "unprecedented" delays? We'll find out terrifyingly soon!

I just got mine too. FR May 4; received date May 14; notice date June 17. Arrived today. Looks like things are starting to move.

My guess is that our cases are sitting in the system but nobody is processing them. They probably shifted whatever resources they have to process other cases. I heard there is an ongoing effort to clear the backlog of cases from the last few years at USCIS, so maybe we got deprioritized. At some point, one officer will log in to the system and go “oh there are a bunch of unprocessed cases here, silly us”. Until then they’ll tell us they have no idea.