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J-1 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval: I-612 Application Success Story

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I-612 Hardship Wavier Approval for Indian National Doctor who conducts medical research




Date Waiver was Filed: 9-27-17
Date of Approval: 9-09-19
Client is a native of: India

Our Indian native client is an accomplished doctor who conducts medical research. To get her J-1 waiver approved, we proved that our client’s United States Citizen relative (her young daughter) would suffer extreme hardship if her mother were to return to her home country of India to fulfill the two-year foreign residency requirement without her and with her.

The facts of this case: how we proved extreme hardship

Client’s Daughter:

  • needed to stay in the United States to continue seeing a highly-knowledgeable medical specialist to help with her specific medical condition – which she would not have access to if she were to return to India with her mother;
  • could not remain in the United States without her: the separation was not an option as the child was fully dependent on maternal care. The baby was exclusively breastfed and refused formula;
  • needed to stay in the United States to continue seeing a highly-knowledgeable medical specialist to help with her specific medical condition – which she would not have access to if she were to return to India with her mother;
  • could not remain in the United States without her mother: the separation was not an option as the child was fully dependent on maternal care. The baby was exclusively breastfed and refused formula.

Furthermore, we also proved that client’s husband:

  • would be adversely affected if he were to stay in the home country or remain in the United States without our client;
  • was only two years away from being eligible to naturalize; relocating to India would delay this process;
  • was seeing a psychologist for severe mental conditions and a physician for a physical ailment. Both of which would be difficult to attend to in the same high-quality manner if they were to relocate to India;
  • would not be able to continue his work, since his occupation’s field is far behind in India and lacks the progress and solid foundation that exists in America

In addition to all this, if the family were to relocate to India, they would face extreme hardship as they would need to sell their house, and in doing so, they would deplete their savings and have nothing to return to America with except for damaged credit and debt.

Our client’s J-1 waiver was approved on 9/09/19

Our client will do a lot of good for patients and, through her research, for the future of medicine.

Additional information and other success stories about I-612 Waivers:

I-612 Hardship Waiver Approval Success Story for Canadian Native

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I-612 Hardship Waiver Letter of Approval for a medical geneticist Canadian native client




Our Canadian native client is a medical geneticist who was pregnant with her first child when she contacted our firm to file her J-1 waiver case.

The Ranchod Law Group proved the client’s United States Citizen husband and his United States Citizen parents would suffer extreme hardship if she returned to her home country of Canada to fulfill the two-year foreign residency requirement and if her husband et al were to relocate to Canada with her.

Her spouse would be devastated because of his inability to continue his career abroad and because of the couple’s obligations to his elderly sick American parents. He had sacrificed so much to become a United States board certified radiologist (spending 14 years in education and training) and is unable to practice in Canada.

Furthermore, the client’s United States Citizen husband had recurrent severe major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Any other scenario aside from an approval of this waiver would be severely detrimental to his mental health and ability to function.

Finally, he would not send his wife to Canada to be a single mother to their child, he would not remain in the United States separated from his wife and child, nor would he separate the child from its mother and send his wife to Canada by herself.

Our client is one among the severe shortage of medical geneticists.

Current wait times to be seen by medical geneticist for initial evaluations is up to 11 weeks. If consulted and seen early, therapies can be put into place to prevent further damage to the brain, heart, bones, and muscles, and many organs.

Fortunately, because of her J-1 visa waiver approval our client can continue helping a vulnerable population.

Additional information in this subject:

J-1 Visa Waiver Processing and Timeline in 2019

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here coming to you live from The Ranchod Law Group answering your immigration questions. Today I’m going to answer the question:

What is happening with J-1 Visa Waivers under the President Trump Administration?
Well… Things have changed with the President Trump Administration, there have been a lot more Request(s) For Evidence (RFE)s that have been issued for Request(s) For Evidence (RFE).

The other issue is that it’s taking 21 months to 25 months – are you kidding me!!??

That’s what’s happening, yes, it’s taking a long time to get J-1 Visa Waivers approved and so the most important thing is to start the process early on: if you start too late you’re going to be out of status because it takes so long to get the J-1 Visa Waiver approved.

Second, there has been one officer currently who has been issuing a lot of Request(s) For Evidence (RFE)s. With the United States CIS administration we’re hoping to see this end soon, but that’s historically what’s been happening.

There are erroneous Request(s) For Evidence (RFE)s, there are Request(s) For Evidence (RFE)s where all the information has been presented and they are asking for the same information again: they are trying to nit-pick every single issue where arguments have been made to demonstrate extreme hardship so that’s not stopping us.

We’re just taking it one level further and preparing responses to those Request(s) For Evidence (RFE)s where we’re retained by the client to demonstrate the extreme hardship one where the spouse is abroad and one where the spouse is here.

So, for instance they’re asking in many cases, they want updated documents and it’s their government’s fault that it’s taking 2 years to process the case but then they come back saying they want updated documents showing for instance financial hardship. So, then we have to go and provide that information even though we already provided it earlier.

So, these are kind of the games the government are playing we’re not letting that stop us, there’s still hope. We just have to work a little bit harder but as usual we’ll roll up our sleeves and get the job done.

If you have questions call us at (916) 613-3553 or check out our other videos on J-1 Visa hardship Waivers and other immigration issues and remember to file early, remember not to give up hope and to call us at (916) 613-3553 to see if you qualify because maybe it’s not in your best interest to qualify.

We have to evaluate your case and evaluate your situation. Keep in mind that if you did get government funding from the United States government that is going to also raise the bar on what you need to do to demonstrate extreme hardship because the department of state gets involved so not only do you have the United States CIS but you’ve also got the Department of State (DOS) – oh my gosh two agencies!

hey… don’t let that stop you! call us at (916) 613-3553 to find out if you should apply especially if you have United States government funding because if you have United States government funding it does make it more difficult to get an approval so you really need to make sure that you have a solid case.

That’s all for today, have an awesome day!

Related Information on J-1 Hardship Waivers

J-1 Hardship Waiver for Egyptian Client with Government Funding

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The facts about this case:

  • Client has two United States citizen children.
  • The older of the two children had RSV and a medical history of respiratory illness.
  • That child receives medical care multiple times each year.
  • In the United States the family has excellent health insurance coverage via client’s employer which they would lose if the family relocated to Egypt.

The Ranchod Law Group argued exceptional medical hardship because of this and because conditions in Egypt would aggravate the child’s health.

This problem is also compounded by the unavailability of medical care and medications in Egypt.

We also made additional hardship arguments due to:

  • the dangerous conditions in Egypt including terrorism and kidnapping;
  • the exceptional financial hardship which would accompany relocation to Egypt as relevant to the children;
  • the severe educational deficiencies in Egypt;
  • the language barrier;
  • emotional/mental health hardship to the children;

among other hardships.

The case was approved in a year and three months.

Additional information in this subject:

J1 Hardship Waiver for Brazil Approved

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group here, coming to you live, and today we’re going to talk about J-1 Visa hardship waivers.

We’re talking about just how we got this Waiver approved for a client from Brazil!

A word on what you have been waiting for.

First of all I want to give you an update – it’s taking 19 to 21 months to get an approval, now that’s in July 2019: crazy times but that’s what it is, so don’t wait because we get too many people who call us when it’s too late.

What you’ve been waiting for:

how did this Waivers get approved

Well we got this J-1 Visa hardship waiver approved because they’re from Brazil – a national from Brazilmarried to a United States citizen and he has a career, long standing career, here in the United States with a very well-known company… he had to give all of that up if he went to Brazil – now who wants to give up that! You work here all your life, you work hard and then, because you marry someone with the two-year rule you have to leave?

Well USCIS agreed with us, we made a legal argument about that: you know tighten all of the facts and what not, arguing career hardship and also the financial obligations. Also, they had gone through separation before and they didn’t want to go through that again – who wants to be separated for two years of their life: that basically disrupts everything in the United States!

If you’re on a J-1 Visa, you know that if you’re here, you know I need an I-601 waiver, then you know that too, and the requirements are very similar although there are some differences with those two so bottom line is call us at (916) 613-3553 to see if you qualify because it just depends on a bunch of factors. There’s not one factor that makes or breaks a case typically – typically it’s the totality of circumstances:

  • it’s the financial hardship
  • it’s the career hardship
  • maybe it’s a health issue
  • maybe it’s the political situation that’s going on with the country at the time as well

In Brazil, you know, there is a lot of crime as well so there are issues specific to Brazil as well that also helped with the J-1 Visa waiver. So every case is different of course, that depends on what country you are from.

I invite you to ask any questions and tune in next Thursday for our next live show on immigration and your questions.

Thank you have an awesome day – bye for now.

Additional information on the subject of J-1 Waivers:

J Waiver Approval for a Brazilian national married to a U.S. citizen

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I-612 Approval Notice




More good news on the J Waiver front! Our client, a Brazilian national, is married to a United States citizen who was working towards his master’s degree, who had a long-standing career with a well-known company, and who ran a small business on the side. With all of these things going on, he had a lot to lose if he had to relocate to Brazil for two years to be with his wife. We argued that because of his ties to the U.S. —including financial obligations— that relocation would impose exceptional hardship; we also highlighted unfavorable conditions in Brazil like high crime and prevalence of communicable diseases that would add to the hardship.

What was interesting in this case was that the two had already experienced separation, so the United States citizen husband, despite all of the hardship, was not willing to remain behind while his wife was in Brazil for two years.

During their short separation, he engaged in unhealthy coping mechanisms which affected his work. Luckily, she was able to return and prevent him from financial ruin. USCIS issued an onerous RFE which The Ranchod Law Group was able to successfully overcome.

Additional information in this subject:

I-612 hardship waiver approval success story and approval letter

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I-612 Application to waive foreign residence requirements




The latest success story to come out of The Ranchod Law Group belongs to a Pakistani national for whom we filed a Waivers of the two-year home residency requirement based on exceptional hardship to his United States citizen wife. By working closely with the clients, we were able to successfully demonstrate that his wife would suffer exceptional hardship if he were to move back to Pakistanfor two years. We highlighted the fact that due to her recurrent major depressive episodes coupled with chronic pain, that being without her husband for two years was simply not an option as she would suffer medical hardships. Our argument explaining why she could not relocate was airtight as well. The husband is Pakistani and Muslim, while his United States citizen wife is a white, Christian woman. This kind of arrangement would already be socially frowned up in Pakistan, but adding to the exceptional hardship was the fact that the husband already had an arranged marriage, per local custom. Upon breaking that arranged marriage, our client effectively made himself and his family a target. Therefore, we were able to successfully argue that their lives would be in danger upon relocation to Pakistan. It is work mentioning that the case was approved without a Request for Evidence (RFE); in today’s climate, that is a huge feat!

Additional information in this subject:

J-1 Waiver Case Study From Lebanon

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod Managing Immigration Attorney at The Ranchod Law Group with Brian here today from Sacramento . We’re going to talk about family based petitions and we’re going to talk about a J-1 Visa Waivers case study that we got approved for a Lebanon national. So the first question is based off of our last Facebook live and is:

What if you have a United States citizen child that’s over the age of 21 – can they petition for you even though you’ve entered without inspection?

In this situation, if you’re qualifying for 245i then yes, your United States citizen child can file a petition for you and file a green card application.

The other question was about the processing time which we’ll talk about as well.

Which are the latest processing times for 245i green card Applications?

Processing times are taking anywhere from 10 to 15 months. In that situation where your United States citizen child files an application for you. 245i application and generally work authorization as well as the travel are being delivered anywhere from about five to six months.

The next question that we got lot of is:

Can I sponsor my child or family member in another country as a permanent resident?

You can sponsor your unmarried child and in this situation you’d file an form I-130 petition and then when the priority date becomes current you would do the second step of that process called consular processing. If you’re a United States citizen child you can also file an form I-130 petition for your parents. If you’re a permanent resident or United States citizen you can of course also file form I-130 petition for your spouse United States citizens can also sponsor their unmarried or married child as well as also filing if you’re over the age of 21 a petition for your brother or sister.

Next we’re gonna talk about a J-1 Visa Waiver case study for a Lebanese citizen. So for this J-1 Visa Waiver approval our client was from Lebanon . He is married to a United States citizen, he also has a United States citizen child. In order to get a J-1 Visa Waiver hardship what you need to do is prove exceptional hardship based off of the fact that if you had to go back home, your United States citizen spouse and the child would face exceptional hardship : or if you didn’t go back home but you stayed here and then had to at the end of the two years go with your entire family back to your home country you would face exceptional hardship. So the way that we were able to do this is by demonstrating that country conditions in Lebanon would be very adverse and challenging for the United States citizen child and spouse if they had to return and go back with their spouse to Lebanon and we also talked about the emotional hardship that the United States citizen spouse would face due to the separation. Since they got the J-1 Visa Waiver they are able to apply for the marriage-based green card ! All right I want to thank you for tuning in. I invite you to tune in next week and ask your questions below or give us a call at (916) 613-3553 if you have questions – alrighty thank you and have an awesome day!

Related Information on J-1 Visas and Waivers

J-1 Hardship Waiver Approval for a Dominican national

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212(e) hardship waiver approval – Ranchod Law Group




A 212(e) Hardship Waiver Success Story

Our latest success story here at the Ranchod Law Group comes from a Dominican national who was faced with having to go back home without her United States -born husband and child because of her two-year residency requirement. The client sought our services as she had filed the Waivers on her own, but did not complete it by sending the necessary forms and documents to the Department of State ( Department of State Department of State (DOS) ) as well. Within weeks, we prepared a compelling statement of reason to show why separation from her family was not feasible–and also why her family relocating with her to the Dominican Republic would have resulted in exceptional hardship . We identified exceptional hardship s to our client’s husband, showing that he would be financially unable to provide for their two children, and our client in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, one of her children was diagnosed with autism, and we demonstrated why he would suffer exceptional hardship if his mother were to relocate back to her home country.

After about 4 months of anxiously waiting, we received the approval from the Waiver Review Division of the Department of State (DOS).

The client, her husband, and their children are now able to remain together in the United States where their son can get the specialized attention he deserves.

Related Information on J-1 Hardship Waivers

I-612 Waiver Approval and Success Story

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I-612 Waiver Approval Notice (Filed on 1/2/2018, Approved on 2/4/2019)




  • Date Filed: 1/2/2018
  • Date Approved: 2/4/2019

The Ranchod Law Group was able to get the case approved even though there was Government Financing1.

The Facts About this Approval

  • Applicant has two U.S. citizen children from a relationship he had while in the U.S.
  • Is now married to a U.S. citizen
  • He is the stepfather of his wife’s children from her prior marriage.

The Ranchod Law Group argued numerous factors in this case which would contribute to a finding of exceptional hardship whether:

  • applicant returned to his home country on his own for two years;
  • his qualifying relatives (wife and two children) tried to relocate for the two-year period.

Applicant’s wife has received therapy in the past which we argued is relevant in both scenarios

We maintained:

  • If waiver were denied, Applicant would not be able to see his children from his prior relationship.
  • If his wife relocated, she wouldn’t be able to see her own children.
  • If waiver was denied, the wife and children would all lose their health coverage which is provided by Applicant’s employment.
  • Applicant’s wife is a student, unemployed, and completely financially dependent on Applicant, a role he could not fulfill from abroad.
  • Applicant couldn’t meet his child support payments from abroad.

approvals are currently taking around 17.5 months

We were pleased with the comparably quick turnaround.

(1) – The participation in an exchange program financed by an agency of the United States Government or the government of the country of citizenship or nationality or last foreign residence, for the purpose of promoting international education and cultural exchange.Click here to return to the note.

Additional information in this subject: