jQuery: Wait/Delay 1 second without executing code

$.delay is used to delay animations in a queue, not halt execution.

Instead of using a while loop, you need to recursively call a method that performs the check every second using setTimeout:

var check = function(){
    if(condition){
        // run when condition is met
    }
    else {
        setTimeout(check, 1000); // check again in a second
    }
}

check();