If you are subject to the two-year home-country physical residence requirement (Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212(e)) on the basis of the skills list or having received home government funding for your exchange, a request for a waiver can be based on a no objection statement from your home country government. The statement must be sent to the U.S. Department of State through diplomatic channels.

As a J-1 scholar in the United States, the no objection statement should likely be submitted through your home country’s embassy in Washington, D.C. Individual embassies will be able to provide information on their requirements. You must ask your embassy to write your full case number on the no objection statement and also on the outside of the envelope to be sent to the Waiver Review Division. You should contact your home country’s embassy for waiver procedures before beginning the waiver process and paying the waiver fee.

Waiver application process

You will initiate the waiver application through the online Form DS-3035:

• Enter your personal information.
• Select the basis on which you are applying for the waiver, e.g., no objection.
• Record the case number created by the system. If you already have a case number, you will enter it with your other information.
• Generate the document packet and bar coded cover sheet.
• Following the mailing instructions provided.