J1 waiver advice- part 2 (IGA)

As I mentioned in last post, I know how hard it is to get visa waiver if you were sponsored by US government. My “no objection” case was denied.
You cannot argue the decision- when it is made, it is final.
You cannot file “no objection” again.
Is there anything you can do then? Yes, luckily there is.
“No objection” is just one of few basis. Look at them carefully, and see which one you could potentially use. I guess if you are from politically stable country, “Fear of prosecution” is not an option. “Exceptional hardship” will not work either, unless you are from 3rd world country and have a wife of child which is a legal permanent resident in US, and you can convince the board not to split family. So the only other option is IGA- Interested Government Agency. Of course, it is only for people with government jobs. And again, I can give details only to scientists, as this is the path I went through myself.
As scientists, we are always working on the grants, which are governmental funds, and it is the basis for this application- that our role is important and not easy to replace due to unique set of skills, expertise and experience. You need and want to stress it in your application.
This type of the case requires you get the support from a lawyer, somebody who dealt with the case like it before, and I will talk about how to find a lawyer in one of future posts. But you will also need a support from your supervisor, and a person in immigration office at the university (try asking in equivalent of International Student Office in your organization, in my case I ended up with the person from Immigration branch of Human Resources). The support from your supervisor is very important, because one of requirements is that the position you occupy is advertised to make sure that you cannot be easily replaced by the person already in US, to seamlessly continue work on the grant. He will also need to write a letter showing the importance of your work within the grant and how your work fits with everybody else does in the lab and on the particular grant.
As I am working in biomedical field, thus my case went in parallel to Department of State and to HHS (Health and Human Services). You send all the documents to a lawyer, and he sorts out what goes where.
Preparing the paperwork for HHS, and for Department of State, is a huge job. You need not only passport copies, all DS and IAP forms, but also all documentation of your achievement as a scientist- similar to “green card”- all your papers and papers citing your papers, book chapters, conference proceedings, membership in professional organizations, grants awarded, any letters showing you reviewed the papers for others, copy of your PhD diploma and anything else you can think of. Don’t worry, spending days to put it all together will quicken preparation of same stuff for “Green Card” application.
You will also need four to eight support letters from other scientist. It is different then for “Green Card” where you can provide more letters, here you cannot exceed eight. They also have a bit different focus, on your fitting in with the grant rather then on your own achievements as a scientist.
How to find people to write you a letter? Try asking people from outside your university, at least outside your lab. Whenever you have the occasion, at the conferences or seminars, get to know people, not only your peers, but also higher ranked scientist- this networking will come in handy when you need those letters. Most of them will know well how to prepare the letters, they have done it before, but there will be cases you will need to prepare the letter yourself, and send them for review and signature only. It should be easy to do, when you have your Research Statement ready, as it will organize your thoughts.
When you file the case, you just wait. First, HHS need to review the papers and send their recommendation, before you case moves on in Department of State, where you can actually monitor the progress online, as in case of “no objection”.