Dr. William:

I am in J-1 visa now, and want to apply for J-1waiver of 2-year home country residence requirement in the category of Interested Government Agency (IGA) waiver.  Do you know how long does an IGA waiver may take?

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Answer:

You must first obtain a case number from U. S. Department of State, which can take about a month. The amount of time required to obtain the IGA recommendations depends on each particular IGA. 

After the IGA recommendations are received, the State Department then reviews the case (4-5 months). The State Department then forwards its recommendation to the appropriate USCIS Center. Different USCIS centers have different review processing times.