Good news for exchange visitors, scholars, and students!

The J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa program has just become much less restrictive, allowing many more beneficiaries to immediately stay in or return to the U.S. This change will benefit nationals of China, India, and 35 other countries.

What is the J-1 visa?

The J-1 nonimmigrant visa category allows certain scholars, teachers, trainees, interns, students, and other short-term workers, to participate in temporary skills and cultural exchange programs, sponsored by governments, international organizations, or approved private hosts such as schools. Unlike every other nonimmigrant visa, the J-1 visa has a unique restriction – the home residence requirement.

What is the home residence requirement?

The home residence requirement is a condition applying to many J-1s and their J-2 dependents, requiring that they return to their home country (or last country of legal permanent residence) for two years before they can return to the U.S. as H or L nonimmigrant workers or pursue green cards.

This requirement applies to J visa holders who are medical trainees, visitors on programs funded by the U.S. government or another government, or trainees from a country and in a field that appears on the Department of State (DOS)’s Exchange Visitor Skills List. The Skills List is a means by which DOS is authorized to designate certain countries as clearly requiring certain fields of specialized knowledge or skills. The rationale is to avoid “brain drain” by preventing smaller developing countries from losing their most educated citizens to the U.S.

Waivers of the home residence requirement are possible but narrowly limited.

What is changing?

DOS has just updated the Exchange Visitor Skills List, for the first time since 2009, removing 37 countries, on the rationale that these countries (in terms of economic development, country size, and emigration) no longer require the home residence requirement to avoid brain drain. The change is retroactive to benefit current J visitors. The Skills List is not changing any skills.

The complete list of countries removed is: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, China, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Eswatini (Swaziland), Gabon, Georgia, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Montenegro, Namibia, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay

This change will benefit:

• All current J visitors who were previously subject to the home residence requirement, and whose country no longer appears on the Skills List (unless they are still independently subject to the home residency requirement based on being a medical trainee or being on a government-funded exchange program); and
• All future J applicants whose country does not appear on the Skills List (unless the above parenthetical applies).

All these people can now change from J status to any status for which they are eligible while remaining in the U.S.; apply for an H or L nonimmigrant visa if eligible; and pursue a green card if eligible. 

Be aware that, under the next Trump administration, DOS would be able to again revise the Skills List with no significant administrative burden. Because the Trump administration is skeptical of J visas generally (Trump suspended J visa entry in 2020 due to the supposed adverse effect on the U.S. labor market, and Trump-adjacent advocates have alleged that the J is vulnerable to national security threats), the J visa might become subject to new restrictions.

What should employers and J visitors do?

In light of the new Skills List, J visa holders and their employers should evaluate whether they are still subject to the home residency requirement. If not, and if these J visitors wish to remain in or to return in the U.S. after their program ends, they may be able pursue other nonimmigrant or immigrant pathways. Contact your designated Meltzer Hellrung attorney for individualized advice.