From: achilles@ira.uka.de (Alf-Christian Achilles)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.german
Subject: Re: J-1 home residency requirement
Date: 25 Jan 93 12:26:17
Organization: Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Deutschland.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: i90s8.ira.uka.de
In-reply-to: hgs@allegra.att.com's message of Sat, 23 Jan 1993 16:33:35 GMT

>>>>> In article <1993Jan23.163335.3181@allegra.att.com>, hgs@allegra.att.com (Henning G. Schulzrinne) writes:

> I would appreciate if people who have had experiences with the
> J-1 two-year home residency requirement could get in touch with me
> (either if you 'served your sentence' or 'got pardoned'). Of particular
> interest to me are the restrictions imposed during the two-year term
> if you have any intention of returning to the U.S. (in terms of where
> you can live, etc.)

> Thanks in advance.

> Henning Schulzrinne
> hgs@research.att.com

I have heard people talk about other people they knew who succeeded in
getting the requirement waived, but I also know somebody personally
who failed. I am happy to tell you what I know but I must add that my
experiences are based solely on the rules for Fulbright students which
are subject to the two-year home residency requirement.

Basically, as I understood and remember it, the procedure is the
following: You will have to get a "no-objection statement" from your
home country, typically from your sponsoring agency (e.g. the german
Fulbright Commission; the Fulbright program is sponsored by the
US and Germany). However, at the very moment you obtain this statement
you are out of the program and you have to get a waiver from the INS
(for Fulbrighters through the IIE and USIA). If you do not get the
waiver you must leave the country. 

The best thing to do is to talk to your sponsor (assuming that getting
a US backed grant is why you are subject to the two-year home
residency requirement, if it's because of the "special skills" list
then I have no idea) and find out from them what to do. Their job,
however, is to discourage attempts to get the requirement waived, so
do not give up too fast. 

But you ask more specifically for any possible restrictions during
the stay in your home country and I am not sure what your are driving
at. I do not really think that you will have to prove your residency
in the home country to the authorities once you want to reenter the
States. And if you have to do so, then it should be fairly simple to
fake residence even if you are living in a third country.

So just stay out of the US for two years and you are free to do
whatever you want. 

-- Alf (into my second year of home-residency :-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alf-Christian Achilles       achilles@ira.uka.de ! Mail : P.O. Box 6980
Lehrstuhl Informatik fuer Ingenieure             !        7500 Karlsruhe 1
    und Naturwissenschaftler                     ! Voice: +49 721 608-4335
University of Karlsruhe, Germany                 ! FAX  : +49 721 698675



--
Alf-Christian Achilles       achilles@ira.uka.de ! Mail : P.O. Box 6980
Lehrstuhl Informatik fuer Ingenieure             !        7500 Karlsruhe 1
    und Naturwissenschaftler                     ! Voice: +49 721 608-4335
University of Karlsruhe, Germany                 ! FAX  : +49 721 698675