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STATE DEPARTMENT PROVIDES ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATIONS ON NEW WAIVER FEE PROCESSING RULE
Recently, the State Department announced a new procedure for submitting J-1 home residency waiver requests. DOS has contracted with a processing vendor in St. Louis, Missouri and applicants must now begin the waiver process by submitting a Data Sheet and fee to that entity. 
The new rule went into effect on March 31st and requires the following steps be followed: 
Step 1. Applicants must initially submit the following paperwork to the State Department: 
Data Sheet – This is the new version of the USIA Data Sheet that has traditionally been submitted with waiver applications. It is downloadable at our forms center at http://www.visalaw.com/forms. The State Department will not accept the old USIA versions of the Data Sheet and the vendor in St. Louis will also return any Data Sheets that are not identical to the new State Department version. 
Two self-addressed, stamped legal-size envelopes. 
6 filing fee (in a cashier’s check or money order payable to the State Department). The check or money order should have the applicant’s full name, date of birth and Social Security Number on it. If the applicant is outside the US, an international money order or foreign draft drawn on an institution in the US and made payable to the US Department of State in US currency. 
The package should be sent to one of the following addresses: 
Postal Service 
US Department of State
Waiver Review Division
PO 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 
   
Step 2.  The State Department will process the paperwork and (according to reports we are hearing from lawyers in the field), the envelopes will be mailed in about a month with an instruction sheet and a case number. It is a good idea for lawyers to put the name of their client on the envelopes but put the lawyer’s address (e.g. Mr. Client, c/o Lawyer Smith, 123 Main). That is because only the case number is listed on the instruction form and not the applicants name. 
The instruction sheet will list documents that will be necessary to complete the waiver process and will be customized to the type of waiver process selected – no objection letter, interested government agency, persecution, or extreme hardship. 
After you get a case number, you have to put that case number on every single page of correspondence with the State Department as well as on the outside envelope. Failure to include the number everywhere required will result in the application being resubmitted. 
Step 3.  The State Department is adamant that it will not follow up on reminding applicants of missing documents and that it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the file is complete. It is possible to check on the status of cases by calling 202-663-1600. The State Department recommends that all requested documents be submitted at the same time. 
If the case is based on a no objection letter from a home country government, the applicant needs to request that the Embassy write the full case number on the request and on the outside of the envelope sent to the Waiver Review Division. It is possible, with the agreement of the Embassy issuing a no objection letter or the government agency providing an interested government agency recommendation, to submit the requested documents to that third party and have all of the documents sent to the Waiver Review Division. But the third party must have the case number listed in all of the places noted above. 
Step 4. At the end of the process, the Waiver Review Division will send the recommendation to the INS and the applicant will receive notification of the decision. 
Recently, the State Department and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have corresponded about transition issues. For cases where no objection letters or interested government agency letter or I-612s have already been requested or filed prior to April 1, 2000, documents will not be returned in the period prior to June 30, 2000. 
For cases at the State Department with a State case number but no fee paid as of April 1, 2000, applicants can send a new data sheet to St. Louis along with the fee and the fee payment will be transmitted to the Visa Office so that processing on the waiver application can proceed. 
The State Department indicated to AILA that letters have been sent to the INS and federal executive agencies and state public health agencies explaining the new process.