J-1 Visa Waivers

A J-1 visa waiver eliminates the two-year home residency requirement for physicians from another country allowing them to move to H-1B visa status and stay in the U.S. Stipulations of this visa waiver involve practicing in a federally designated primary care or mental health Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). Recommendation must be provided by an interested federal government agency.

Note: The submission process has been updated. Please review the below information and links.

The application tool for submission of a J1 Visa Waiver application has been revised.

The Department of State no longer requires hard copies of the application; Please only upload updated and final documents. Complete applications will be reviewed and approved in the order they are received. If corrections to an application are required, a review and request for correct will be emailed to you. Once a completed application is submitted, please expect the review process to take up to four weeks.  

After the application has been approved, the PCO will submit the application electronically to the Department of State. An email of the recommendation letter will be sent to you via email.  

The Primary Care Office (PCO) will now allow signed contracts to be submitted via the Smartsheet link to tentatively “hold” a slot. After the documents are submitted, the PCO will assign a J1 number and will hold the slot for three weeks to allow completion and submission of the full J1 Visa Waiver Application. Contracts or Letters of Intent are not required to proceed the submission of an entire application packet.

After submission of a signed contract and all required information, Smartsheet will send a series of weekly automated emails. Within the three-week hold period, the full application should be submitted by using the “Open Request” function found within the automated Smartsheet emails. Using this function is the only way to revisit a previous submission.  Please note, submitting a signed contract does not guarantee a J1 slot will be allocated.

Contracts or Letters of Intent will only temporarily hold a J1 Visa Waiver spot for 21 calendar days, or three weeks.

• Oklahoma J-1 Visa Waiver Application Package Instructions
  • Provides a listing of the required documents for J-1 submissions to the Office of Primary Care
• J-1 Visa Waiver FY2024-2025 (smartsheet.com)
  • Please assemble your applications according to the USDOS requirements below:
  • US Department of State Requirements for Application
    • Please assemble applications in the following order
      • Letter from Employer
      • HPSA/MUA Evidence documents
      • Employment Contract*
      • DS-2019's/I-94
      • Curriculum Vitae
      • Exchange Visitor Attestation/Foreign Medical Graduate Statement
      • Form G-28/Letter of Representation
      • DS-3035 and Supplementary Applicant Information Pages
      • Statement of Reason
      • Third Party Barcode Page
      • Waiver Division Barcode Page
    • Please remember
      • The details related to the facility name(s) and each address where the applicant will be working must be in the contract.  
      • Recruitment effort documents should NOT be submitted with Conrad 30 applications. This and/or other additional documentation submitted with an application must be manually removed and may lead to increased application processing times.
      • The DOS Case Number must be included on every page of the application.
      • Do not include divider pages.
• NIW Requirements for Oklahoma
  • Requirements for National Interest Waiver Submissions to the Office of Primary Care
• Find Shortage Area by Address
  • Link to HRSA shortage, find by address
• USCIS J1 Waiver Conrad 30 Program
  • US Custom and Immigration Department J1 Resources

Mailing Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
Office of Primary Care & Rural Health Development
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave., Suite 1702
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-6406

Physical Address: (appointment required)
Oklahoma State Department of Health
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK

Phone: (405) 426-8624
E-mail: JanaC@health.ok.gov