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The waiver application was denied by the Director, California Service Center, and is now before the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) on appeal. The matter will be remanded to the Director to request a section 212(e) waiver recommendation from the Director, U.S. Department of State (DOS), Waiver Review Division (WRD).

The record reflects that the applicant is a native and citizen of the Philippines who was granted J1 nonimmigrant exchange status in August 1991 to participate in graduate medical training. She is thus subject to the two-year forejgn residence. requirement under section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act).8 U.S.C.§ 1182(e). The applicant presently seeks a waiver of her two-year residence requirement, based on the claim that her U.S. Citizen spouse and three eMdren, born in 1993, 1996 and 1999, would suffer exceptional hardship if they moved to the Philipproes temporarily with the applicant and in the alternative, if they remained in the United States while the applicant fulfilled her two-year foreign residence requirement in the Philippines.