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J VISA HOME
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT:
GENERAL INFORMATION
What is
the Two Year Home Country Residence Requirement (HRR)?
Many holders of J exchange visitor visas
are restricted from changing to certain visa categories by a
two year home country residency requirement (HRR). In order
to change to visas such as the H or the L, or to obtain permanent
residence, J visa holders subject to the home residency requirement
must obtain a waiver from the United States Department of State
(DOS).
Exchange Visitors may be subject to the two
year home residency requirement of Section 212(e) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act for one or more of the following reasons:
- Receipt of funding from the United States
Government (USG), their own government, or an international
organization in connection with their participation in the
Exchange Visitor Program.
- The education,
training or skill that they are
pursuing in the U.S. appears on
the Exchange
Visitor Skills List
for their country (note that the
Skills List is a large document,
and will be downloaded in PDF).
- They acquired J-1 status on or after January
10, 1977, for the purpose of receiving graduate medical education
or training.
If you are unsure whether Section 212(e) applies
to your case, you or your attorney may write to the Department
of State's Waiver Review Division to ask for an Advisory Opinion
on this issue. For more information on Advisory Opinions, click
here.
Exchange visitors who are subject to, but do
not wish to satisfy, the two-year home country residence requirement
may apply for a waiver of that requirement based on any one
of five grounds (see below).
Note that waiver
decisions are made on a case-by-case
basis, taking program, policy
and foreign relations considerations
into account (e.g., type of exchange
program, amount and source of funding).
These are balanced against information
presented in support of the waiver
application. No two cases are identical.
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