Generally, the country which was your country of legal permanent residence when you received your J-1 status is the country to which you must return to fulfill the two-year home-country physical presence requirement. The period of time you spend in the U.S. or a third country after your exchange visitor program has ended may count toward fulfillment of the two-year home-country physical presence requirement, if you are employed by your home country’s government, in its military service, or in its career foreign service and you are serving in a country other than your home country at the behest of your home country’s government. You have to provide a written statement from an official of your home government (through the home country’s embassy in Washington, DC) that you were or will be serving in the U.S. or a third country in the service of your home country and at that government’s request.