How to Prepare the J-1 Applicant's Hardship Declaration

The current Form I-612 requires a signed and dated statement providing a detailed explanation of why compliance with §212(e) would impose exceptional hardship on the qualifying spouse or child.

The applicant should explain the J history, family relationships, household structure, caregiving responsibilities, employment, finances, medical issues, and the family's realistic options if the two-year requirement must be fulfilled.

The declaration should explain what would happen if the qualifying relatives accompanied the applicant abroad and what would happen if they remained in the United States while the J-1 lived abroad.

Statements about treatment, income, debts, childcare, employment, education, therapy, or foreign-country conditions should correspond to documentary evidence whenever that evidence is reasonably available.

A statement that the family would suffer greatly is much less useful than a specific explanation of who provides care, what monthly obligations exist, which treatment is required, what income would be lost, and how each qualifying relative would be affected.