blooper1899

1 hour ago, Wyboxcx said:

I am currently waiting on the final recommendation. Also Fulbright and the DOS received my sponsor views back on March 10. Thank you for sharing your timeline!

Hang tight, it'll happen!

7 minutes ago, Wyboxcx said:

Congratulations. That’s awesome!! You must be very relieved. Just a question: how long did you wait between Sponsor views received and the recommendation? 

Forever! They sent for SV on Jan 26, got the SV back on February 1, and sent the recommendation only yesterday, so they waited 1.5 months before they sent recommendation. I don't know why they do what they do. 

I've waited at DOS since June 22, 2022

Hi all, I got my favorable recommendation yesterday! Now waiting for the USCIS final document before going for GC. 

I was a Fulbright, so it is possible. I will say that I am from a political enemy country of the US, so I'm not sure how much that played a role given the restrictions and sanctions imposed on my home country in the past. The hardship case was for spouse, who struggles with mental health issues, also my spouse is a member of lgbtq, so I am sure that also played a role given my country's anti-LBTQIA+ laws. I was also a sole breadwinner and insurance provider in our household. We worked with Ranchod law firm and they did a decent job, a bit slow on the start, but the case was presented well. Good luck to all who are waiting! I will be disconnecting from this forum after a couple of days, happy to answer questions in the meantime.

It's back, baby! And still pending. This word is gonna give me ptsd. 

On 3/8/2024 at 11:11 AM, Kel-Thuzad said:

I checked more online and only found that maybe people who are already under some OTHER visa may be able to adjust their status, but not people who are currently under the J1 visa subject to 212e... 

Ah, yes, sorry. I had J1, then i left the country, got F1, did my program, was on stem opt, and got o1 and a change of status. So not from J1. 

18 hours ago, Sabina Bart said:

Question does anyone know if I have to send another statement because of change of address? Obviously we have new bills and new mortgage info-which is more than before and I moved across the country from the East to West coast… my lawyer says that it will postpone the process but that doesn't really matter since everyone changes addresses etc what's important are the medical factors at least in my case… 

I changed address too, last August. I had to send a form to both USCIS and DOS. I don't know if it postponed the process, maybe, but I wanted to be safe, and my lawyer was pretty adamant about submitting change of address. 

On 3/5/2024 at 7:52 PM, Kel-Thuzad said:

Then I will have no choice to leave the country to apply for O-1 visa; Hopefully I am not getting stuck in Administrative Processing forever.
Then couple of years working under O-1, I suppose...

I have O1 visa now. You can change your status within the country, my lawyer was successful in that. I transitioned from F1 to O1, and did not have to leave the US. So talk to a lawyer about this!

On 3/4/2024 at 10:40 PM, Sabina Bart said:

Oh so a month passed, maybe it’s coming soon? Are you Fulbright correct? I saw someone on FB posted their case status and it seems that theirs was requested on Jan 10 and in Feb like 10th I think sponsor views were received and they got FR like last week end of February. Their case is from January 2023. 

Yes, I was Fulbright. They received SV on Feb 1, but only updated my case in March, don't know if that's good or bad.

Still don't know their final decision, but probably soon. 

2 hours ago, Sabina Bart said:

Did you get your sponsor views? I think yours was June 2022 case? Did they send sponsor views? 

Nope, they requested SV in the end of Jan 2024, but still waiting to hear anything. 

On 3/1/2024 at 5:01 PM, Sabina Bart said:

Does anyone know how long does it take once sponsor views have been sent? 

Or do you mean once DOS receives the sponsor views, when they make a decision? Based on the cases above, usually 1-2 weeks once they get the SV back.

On 3/1/2024 at 5:01 PM, Sabina Bart said:

Does anyone know how long does it take once sponsor views have been sent? 

I think it varies based on who the sponsor is. From the cases I've monitored, Fulbright tends to take much longer (2-6 months) and some sponsors take a week.

32 minutes ago, Sabina Bart said:

Right! This happens because they don’t want to open and read cases, I am telling you those who don’t they just quickly look and say okay make sense Favorable… but there are some cases that are not Favorable too without sponsorships… just interesting how the system works! 

They skipped my case mine was January 25, 2023 and they did approve bunch of January 25, 2023 cases but not mine  lol! 

I think they skip the ones with government funding and wait to accumulate cases with the same sponsor. Then they do a batch of sponsor view requests. That's my hypothesis. My case is from June 2022 with funding, and they skipped them initially. Then for three cases that I know of they sent SV requests on Jan 25-26. 

6 minutes ago, extreme_hardship said:

Did they request a Sponsor's view for yours ?

They did not! There is one case in October 2022 that they requested SV for, but not for the earlier cases. Now I wonder if it's based on who the sponsor was. 

I don't think so. My case reached them in June 2022, and they skipped it. And there is at least one more from May 2022 not decided. 

I've been tracking several cases from May-October 2022, including my own in June 2022. They skipped them and moved on to Nov-Dec 2022 and Jan 2023. My hypothesis is because they adjudicate the cases without funding first and then do the ones with gov funding later. Don't know how much later. This is very disheartening, because I also saw cases from June 2022 being decided and was optimistic, only to have my hopes crushed when they moved on to January 2023 cases. I'm very happy for those who don't have to wait that long, but it is very unfair to not process cases as they came in, even if it requires more work on the DOS's behalf. 

On 12/20/2023 at 10:32 AM, Sabina Bart said:

I am sorry, so they did request sponsor views? When? 

No, they did not even request sponsor views. My case was completely ignored. So DOS can claim as much as they want that they adjudicate  the cases in the order they are received, but it simply is not true.

My case landed at DOS on June 22, 2022. I see they decided on one case from that day, and then moved on to July. I do have sponsor views, maybe that's why, but at least update that you requested sponsor views. I am so discouraged now. So frustrating. 

Pending at DOS since June 2022

17 hours ago, Kalaz said:

Good evening everyone. When is the optimal time for a third-year resident on a J-1 visa, currently in a five-year program, to apply for a J-1 waiver based on hardship? Should I consider applying during the fourth year after J1 for 5th year is approved or earlier? Also planning to do 1 year fellowship. As far as I know you can apply for J1 if there is no decision/recommendation yet.

If you are doing hardship, do it as soon as possible. You can see from this thread, the wait period at DOS alone is more than 14 months. Then USCIS also is increasing their wait times to around 1 year. If you're doing Conrad 30, that's a different story and I don't know anything about it or the process. 

3 hours ago, Wyboxcx said:

Anyone know what is going to happen in case there is a government shutdown? USCIS is fee funded so it will continue to process applications, but it's unclear whether DOS waiver review division is affected? 

Im sure they'll use it to further delay hardship cases processing. 

20 hours ago, Mickey344 said:

The group has been silent for a while. Any last minute approvals?

Still waiting, since June 2022 at DOS. There have been some approvals that I saw on the FB J1 Waiver group. They were mostly cases from 2021. 

On 9/5/2023 at 9:56 AM, Hardship_waiver said:

Last year we had same feelings, but nothing happened. Sleep mode.

Was gonna say the same thing. I always look for signs and it seemed like things sped up around March- April, but no.

This is so messed up! If I lived closer to DC, I would definitely be protesting. I am considering starting a Change.org petition maybe? I don't have thousands of dollars to hire lawyers to sue the government, I also don't have hours of time to put the case together to file a Mandamus. When people tell me that "they should just come legally", it boils my blood. What we are doing is following the legal process, but the process is broken. People do not have the luxury of waiting for two years. I'm in my 14th month at DOS and I just don't know what else to do, who to call, who to write to. The system is fundamentally broken. 

1 hour ago, Hardship_waiver said:

Is June 2022 the DOS receipt date of forms i-612/i-613 or it's the date when USCIS sent your forms to DOS?

DOS only starts counting from the date it uploads your case on their portal (for some people, it takes ~10 months just to upload these electronic forms on the DOS portal). 

I hope the senator route does something for you as neither route is working these days. 

The i-612 and 613 forms are with DOS since last June. I keep checking, every single day, and nothings. It's maddening that there is absolutely no accountability for them! It seemed like things kind of sped up around March/April but are at a lull again. 

I am a Fulbrighter, hardship to US spouse. Case has been sitting with DOS since June 2022. We tried expediting through a state representative but nothing happened. Will try the senator route this month. This sucks!