I-612, Application for Waiver of the Foreign Residence Requirement (under Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended)
ALERT: On Jan. 30, 2024, USCIS announced a final rule, published in the Federal Register, that adjusts the fees required for most immigration applications and petitions. The new fees will be effective April 1, 2024.
Applications and petitions postmarked on or after April 1, 2024, must include the new fees or USCIS will not accept them.
What to Know About Sending Us Your Form
The new filing fee is effective for filings postmarked April 1, 2024, and later. If you are filing an acceptable prior form edition on or after April 1, 2024, you must include the new filing fee.
ALERT: USCIS is reverting to the intake process we applied before October 2019 to Form I-589, Form I-612, and Form I-918.
J-1 and J-2 visas holders and their families may use this form to apply for a waiver of the two-year foreign residence requirement.
Form Details
Dates are listed in mm/dd/yy format.
If you complete and print this form to mail it, make sure that the form edition date and page numbers are visible at the bottom of all pages and that all pages are from the same form edition. If any of the form’s pages are missing or are from a different form edition, we may reject your form.
If you need help downloading and printing forms, read our instructions.
| If You Are Filing Form I-612 Because Of: | Mail Your Form To: |
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U.S. Postal Service (USPS):
USCIS California Service Center FedEx, UPS, and DHL deliveries: USCIS California Service Center |
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The address listed on the Department of State’s website. |
You may pay the fee with a money order, personal check, cashier’s check or pay by credit card using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions. If you pay by check, you must make your check payable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
When you send a payment, you agree to pay for a government service. Filing and biometric service fees are final and non-refundable, regardless of any action we take on your application, petition, or request, or if you withdraw your request.
Pay each filing fee separately. We are transitioning to electronically processing immigration benefit requests, which requires us to use multiple systems to process your package. Because of this, you must pay each filing fee separately for any form you submit. We may reject your entire package if you submit a single, combined payment for multiple forms.
Please do not submit this checklist with your Form I-612. It is an optional tool to use as you prepare your form, but does not replace statutory, regulatory, and form instruction requirements. We recommend that you review these requirements before completing and submitting your form. Do not send original documents unless specifically requested in the form instructions or applicable regulations.
If you submit any documents (copies or original documents, if requested) in a foreign language, you must include a full English translation along with a certification from the translator verifying that the translation is complete and accurate, and that they are competent to translate from the foreign language to English.
Did you provide the following?
- A statement detailing the hardship or persecution that will occur if you return to your country of citizenship or nationality;
- Copies of all Forms DS-2019/IAP-66, Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor Status, for all exchange programs in which you or your spouse participated (if applicable); and
- A copy of your Form I-94, Arrival-Departure Record.
If you are applying for a waiver of the foreign residence requirement because your departure from the United States would impose exceptional hardship on your U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or child, did you provide the following?
- Evidence of your spouse’s or child’s U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent resident status;
- Evidence of the relationship between you and your spouse or child; and
- Evidence of legal termination of all prior marriages for you and your spouse (if applicable).
Filing Tips: Go to our Tips for Filing Forms by Mail page for information on how to help ensure we will accept your application.
Don’t forget to sign your form. We will reject any unsigned form.
