The National Interest Waiver (NIW) is most appropriate for applicants who do not have a job offer but nevertheless excel in their fields of endeavors. For applicants who were not born in a country with visa backlogs (such as India and China), a successful NIW application means green card in hand in a few months. Often we find that applicants who have no exposures to the legal standard have no accurate perspectives of their chances in getting approval in the sense that they often overlook some of their significant accomplishments just because they don’t understand the legal standards and how these standards are applied practically. Therefore, especially for some relatively difficult cases, it is crucial that a professional interacts with you to help reveal certain intrinsic merits in the applicant’ background.
Specifically, an alien may apply for permanent residence status (Green Card) and seek a waiver of the offer of employment by establishing that his (her) admission to permanent residence would be in the National Interest. There is no specific rule or statutory standard as to what will qualify an alien for a National Interest Waiver. The USCIS considers each case on an individual basis. One case law provides some general guidance as to the case law standard. In Re New York State Dept. of Transportation EAC 96 063 51031 (AAU, Aug. 7, 1998) provides the following criteria for satisfying the exemption of a job offer based on national interest:
1) It must be shown that the Alien seeks employment in an “Area of Substantial Intrinsic Merit”
2) The Proposed Benefit is National in Scope
3) The National Interest Would Be Adversely Affected if Labor Certification Were Required for the Alien
The procedure is to file the case with evidence to establish that the alien’s admission to the United States for Permanent Residence would be in the national interest.
Factors that have been considered in successful cases include:
The alien’s admission will improve the U.S. economy.
- The alien’s admission will improve wages and working conditions of U.S. Workers.
- The alien’s admission will improve educational and training programs for U.S. children and underqualified workers.
- The alien’s admission will improve health care
- The alien’s admission will provide more affordable housing for young, aged, or poor U.S. residents.
- The alien’s admission will improve the U.S. environment and lead to more productive use of the national resources.
- The alien’s admission is requested by an interested U.S. government agency.
Many of our cases in which National Interest Waivers have been approved were supported by affidavits from well-known, established and influential people or organizations.
For example, an application being submitted for a scientist should contain affidavits from leading scientists, representatives, and from other organizations associated with the type of research to be pursued.
Documenting past achievements, as well as proof that the alien has already created jobs, turned around a business or created an increase in exports or other economic improvements should prove instrumental in gaining approval.
We have represented numerous post-doc researchers in various national academic institutions such as National Institute of Health and research branches of various colleges and universities.
