能。下面那位朋友“后悔晚矣”就是这么申请的。

You may be eligible to apply for a waiver for the foreign residence requirement if:

You have a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse or child and you can provide evidence that returning to your country would impose exceptional hardship on your spouse or child.


You cannot return to your country because you would be subject to persecution because of your race, religion, or political opinion.


A U.S. government agency requests a waiver directly from the Bureau of Consular Affairs for you because you are engaged in a project of official interest to the agency.


Your country provides a written statement to the director of the Bureau of Consular Affairs stating that your country has no objection to a waiver. (If you came to the United States as an exchange visitor to receive graduate medical education or training, you are ineligible to receive a waiver on this ground.)


An interested Federal agency, any State Department of Public Health or its equivalent sponsors you to work full-time for three years as a nonimmigrant H-1B status (temporary worker in specialty occupation) physician in a geographic area designated as having a shortage of health care professionals. Waiver applicants sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs are not required to practice medicine in an area designated as having a shortage of health care professionals. If you are granted the waiver, you must agree to begin your employment within 90 days of receiving the waiver. The request of the interested State or Federal agency is submitted to the director of the Bureau of Consular Affairs.