From: Dorothea Beringer < >
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 21:33:59 -0700

Marc,
Obtaining a waiver is pretty straightforward. You find the necessary
details at:
    http://www.eda.admin.ch/washington_emb/e/home/legaff/howto/j1visa.html
Just be aware that obtaining a waiver might take some time - it took us
here in California about 9 months, and that was 3 years ago before Sept
11 (time depends on the INS service center that is responsible for your
region)! Also I heard that once you apply for the waiver you cannot
extend the J-1, but I am not sure if that is correct. Check with the
person responsible for visas at your institute. We did not have any
problems with the waiver, as we both applied for it in time, so we had
it when the H1-B became an issue.

As far as I know you have no chance of getting rid of the two-year home
rule requirement other than by obtaining a waiver. But compared to other
visa issues (e.g. when you cannot travel for months even if it is
essential for your career, or when part of your family cannot join you
for months or years), the whole waiver story is a rather minor hassle.

Dorothea

--
Dorothea Beringer    djberinger_at_bluewin.ch
+1 (650) 561-9115 (daytime PST only!)
--
Marc Audard wrote:
>Hi
>
>I was apparently screwed by the US embassy. Even though I had no
>governemental money, the J-1 Visa I have bears the two-year home
>rule. Even though I argued when I applied, I was told to show
>the docs to INS entry person who would change this if needed.
>This person did not do anything, and now I learn that now that
>I am in the US, I can't do anything about this except apply for
>a waiver later.
>
>Did somebody else have similar problem? Did you contact the
>embassy later? Is it ''easy'' to obtain this waiver?
>
>Marc
>
>
>=================================================================
>To unsubscribe from the swiss-list mailing list send the
>message body of "unsubscribe swiss-list" to majordomo_at_swiss-list.com
>or visit http://www.swiss-list.com/mailing/
>
-- 
=================================================================
To unsubscribe from the swiss-list mailing list send the
message body of "unsubscribe swiss-list" to majordomo_at_swiss-list.com
or visit http://www.swiss-list.com/mailing/