Employment-Based Immigration
National Interest Waiver (EB-2)
Permanent Residency through NIW
The National Interest Waiver (NIW) is a
waiver of the job offer requirement for
individuals who wish to immigrate to the
United States in the second category who
are members of the professions holding advance
degrees and individuals exceptional ability
in the arts, sciences or business. The advantages
of NIW application are:
(1) the foreign professional may file the
petition by himself without his employer’s
sponsorship;
(2) no job offer and labor certification
requirement; and
(3) change in employer will not affect
the pending or approved NIW petition. NIW
is actually a very popular route to permanent
residency for scientific researchers, especially
in medical area.
Basic Requirements
In the 1998 Administrative Appeals Office
decision New York State Department of Transportation
(NYSDOT), the USCIS has given guidance regarding
the following three-prong test for a national
interest waiver:
- The foreign professional applicant
is seeking employment in an area of substantial
intrinsic merit;
- The benefit of the work will be national
in scope, i.e., will not benefit only
a local community; and
- The national interest will be adversely
affected if a labor certification is required
for the position.
In most NIW cases, it may not be difficult
for the foreign professional applicant to
prove the first two requirements. However,
the third requirement is hard to meet. Since
a national interest waiver is not warranted
solely to ameliorate a local labor shortage,
the applicant must prove that the benefit
his unique skills would provide substantially
outweighs the inherent national interest
in protecting U.S. workers through the labor
certification process.
Application Procedures
No labor certification application is required.
The immigrant petition can be filed by the
applicant himself or by his/her employer.
The change of employer by the applicant
will not affect his pending or approved
NIW petition as long as his new employment
is in the same or similar field of endeavor
when he filed his NIW petition.
Our firm has for the past decade successfully
represented hundreds of NIW cases. In order
to assure the success of your case, we strictly
follow the following three-step application
procedures:
Case Evaluation
We usually provide you with a brief evaluation
over the phone to determine if your qualifications
generally fit this category. If we believe
your qualifications satisfy the basic requirements
of NIW, we will e-mail you an Evaluation
Packet for you to complete. Your case will
be presented at our firm’s Evaluation
Meeting for assessment. Our attorney will
then call you to go through the details
of the evaluation and assess the probability
of approval of your case.
Preparing Application
(1)You shall provide our firm with information
and copies of documentation
according to our Information List.
(2) We will help you draft recommendation
letters supporting the contention that you
are qualified for NIW;
(3) We prepare petition forms and most importantly
the petition letter that contains detailed
legal analysis of your case to convince
USCIS that you are qualified for permanent
residency through NIW; and
(4) We send the entire case to you or your
employer for your review and signature.
Filing Application
(1)We will file your petition with USCIS
office having jurisdiction over your case.
(2) Upon approval of your NIW petition,
we will help you to obtain permanent residence
through either adjustment of status inside
the U.S. or consular processing overseas.
(3) We will assist you in making decisions
whether to file your immigrant petition
concurrently with your adjustment of status
application.
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