U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Services Waiver Review Division

Exchange visitors may be subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement of Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, for one or more of the following reasons:

Exchange visitors who are subject to, but do not wish to comply with, the two-year home country residence requirement, may apply for a waiver of that requirement under any one of the five applicable grounds provided by the United States immigration law.

1. "No Objection" statement from the home government

Note: The law precludes use of this option by medical doctors listed in "c" above.

The exchange visitor's government must state that it has no objection to the exchange visitor not returning to the home country to satisfy the two-year foreign residence requirement of Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and remaining in the U.S. if he or she chooses to do so.

2. Request by an interested (U.S.) Government agency, or IGA

If an exchange visitor is working on a project for or of interest to a U.S. Federal Government agency, and that agency has determined that the visitor's continued stay in the United States is vital to one of its programs, a waiver may be granted if the exchange visitor's continued stay in the United States is in the public interest.

Note: For applications on behalf of foreign physicians who agree to serve in medically underserved areas, please refer to Federal Register Volume 62, No. 102 of May 28, 1997.

3. Persecution

If the exchange visitor believes that he or she will be persecuted upon return to the home country due to race, religion, or political opinion, he or she can apply for a waiver.

4. Exceptional hardship to a United States citizen (or permanent resident) spouse or child of an exchange visitor

 

If the exchange visitor can demonstrate that his or her departure from the United States would cause extreme hardship to his or her United States citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or child, he or she may apply for a waiver. (Please note that mere separation from family is not considered to be sufficient to establish exceptional hardship.)

5. Request by a designated State Department of Health, or its equivalent

 

Note: The law permits only medical doctors to apply for a waiver on this basis.

Pursuant to the requirements of Public Law 103-416, of October 25, 1994 and Public Law 107-273, of November 2, 2002, foreign medical graduates who have an offer of full-time employment at a health care facility in a designated health care professional shortage area, and who agree to begin employment at the facility within 90 days of receiving such waiver, and who sign a contract to continue to work at the health care facility for a total of 40 hours per week and not less than three years, may apply for a waiver.

PROCEDURES FOR WAIVER APPLICATIONS

There are four steps to processing a waiver review application.

STEP 1. To apply for a recommendation for a waiver of the two-year home residence requirement under any of the above bases, applicants must complete and send a Data Sheet application, and two self-addressed, stamped, legal-size envelopes (S.A.S.E) and a cashier's check or money order for $230 U.S. dollars per application, payable to the U.S. Department of State to:

Postal Service

US Department of State
Waiver Review Division
P. O. Box 952137
St. Louis, MO 63195-2137

Courier Service

US Department of State
Waiver Review Division
(Box 952137)
1005 Convention Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63101-1200

 

Please Note:

 

• ONLY REVISED DATA SHEET APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
  Applications with other versions of the Data Sheet will be returned to the sender without processing.

   

• Please write on the cashier's check or money order the applicant's full name, date of birth and Social Security Number, if any.

   

• Remittances must be drawn on a bank or other institution located in the U.S. and made payable in U.S. currency to the U.S. Department of State.

   

• If the applicant resides outside the United States at the time of application, remittance may be made by bank international money order of foreign draft drawn on an institution in the U.S. and made payable to the U.S. Department of State in U.S. currency.

STEP 2. Once the Waiver Review Division has received your Data Sheet application, they will use your self-addressed, stamped, legal-size envelopes, to send you a case number and instruction sheet on how to proceed with your application under the basis you designated on your Data Sheet application. This information will include a list of documents that you must submit to complete your waiver review application. After you have received your case number, you must write the full case number on any documentation you submit as well as on the outside envelope of all future correspondence with this office. If you do not write the case number on all correspondence and on the outside of the envelope, the documents you submit will be returned to you.

NOTE: Please do NOT fax or mail copies of your data sheet to the Waiver Review Division. The lock box in St. Louis will forward your data sheet to the Waiver Review Division. If you fax or mail copies of your data sheet to the Waiver Review Division, it will NOT be processed.

STEP 3. It is your responsibility to submit all requested documents and required letters sent on your behalf. Once we have sent you the check list of items necessary to complete the review of your application (Step 2 above), the Waiver Review Office will NOT follow up on documents that have not been received. Rather, it will be your responsibility to ensure that your file is complete. You may check on the status of your application ONLY by calling (202) 663-1600. You must have your full case number in order to obtain the status of your case through this telephone number.

We recommend that you submit all the requested documents at the same time. Some letters (such as a "No Objection" statement from your government) must be submitted directly to the Waiver Review Division by the Embassy. In that case, you, as the applicant, must request that the Embassy 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 may, if the third party agrees, have all of your documents forwarded to the Waiver Review Division through the third party. Please note, however, that ALL documents sent to the Waiver Review Division must have your file number clearly visible on it, and on the outside of the envelope or they will be returned to you.

STEP 4: At the conclusion of the review process, the Waiver Review Division will forward its recommendation directly to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security and you will receive a copy of that recommendation at the address listed on your data sheet. If your application is denied, you will be notified directly.

Waiver processing fee information