Bruce Hake Comments on USCIS Policy Manual 'Extreme Hardship' Draft

Renowned J-1 and hardship expert Bruce Hake emailed this comment to USCIS on Nov. 19, 2015.

Excerpt: "There is a legal error in footnote 1 to the draft USCIS Policy Manual: Vol. 9, Part B: Extreme Hardship (draft). Every year this error could harm hundreds of J-1 nonimmigrants and their U.S. citizen family members.

The error is in this sentence of the footnote: “It also does not address those discretionary relief provisions that require a showing of greater hardship. See INA § 212(e) (“exceptional hardship” waiver of two-year foreign residence requirement for certain exchange visitors) and INA § 240A(b)(1)(D) (“exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” generally required for cancellation of removal Part B).”

It is emphatically not true that an INA § 212(e) exceptional hardship waiver requires a showing of “greater hardship” than the extreme hardship required for various other kinds of waivers and discretionary relief. To the contrary, the opposite is probably true."

Background:

• Judicial Review of J-1 Waiver Denials
• The Hake Hardship Scale