The Waiver Review Division of the State Department is interpreting the recent legislation extending the "Conrad" J-1 physician waiver program to permit an additional 10 waiver numbers to the states for FY 2002. The State Department expects the states to use these waiver numbers for cases that were filed and pending at the time states exhausted the then-applicable allotments of 20 waiver requests per year. A state must request a waiver for one of the 10 extra numbers by September 30, 2003.
The Division’s policy statement follows.
Division's Policy Statement
To: Conrad/State 30 Program
From: U.S. Department of State, J-1 Visa Waiver Division
Re: Amendments to the Conrad/State 20 Program
Date: December 3, 2002
The President signed the Justice Authorization bill on November 2, 2002. (Pub. L.107-273). This law is organized into several divisions, incorporating numerous previously enacted legislation. The Law Enforcement Tribute Act is incorporated under a division of this law and amends the Conrad State 20 Program at section 11018 by increasing the number of visa waiver requests for each state per fiscal year from 20 to 30. This section also authorizes the extension of the Program to 2004.
Section 11018(d) makes the amendments to the Program effective as of May 31, 2002. The Department interprets this to permit states that have reached the numerical limitation of 20 requests for 2002 to submit up to 10 additional visa waiver requests for fiscal year 2002. It is contemplated that these additional cases originated in FY’ 02 with the State. The Department will accept such cases with that understanding. If you plan to submit additional requests for fiscal year 2002, the Department would appreciate your doing so as expeditiously as possible to facilitate the processing of your applications by the Visa Waiver Division. The Waiver Division will not accept applications postmarked after September 30, 2003. Also, the applications must be numbered sequentially and for the fiscal year for which it is being submitted.
Applications for fiscal year 2003 are to be submitted in compliance with normal regulatory requirements and must be postmarked no later than September 30, 2003.
