American Immigration Lawyers Association member Alan Musgrave of Boston has received a letter from United States Information Agency attorney Stanley Colvin indicating that if a J-1 visa holder subject to the two year home residency requirement acquires citizenship in another country and automatically loses their home country citizenship, they would no longer be subject to a home residency requirement. In the case presented by Mr. Musgrave to the USIA, a national of the People’s Republic of China acquired Canadian citizenship which then resulted in his Chinese citizenship automatically being revoked. The USIA stated that the alien was no longer subject to a home residency requirement since it would be impossible for the alien to fulfill the home residency requirement. Mr. Colvin indicated that USIA would apply this analysis in future cases with a similar fact pattern.
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