NATIONAL INTEREST WAIVER 2nd PREFERENCE GREEN CARD

The EB-2, Second Preference Employment based Green Card categories is for professionals with advanced degrees (Masters or higher), and individuals with exceptional ability business, sciences or the arts. This means that the beneficiary must possess such knowledge, experience, and ability that is unique in the field, setting him or her apart from others, and have an essential role in highly advanced aspects in his or her discipline. The beneficiary’s advanced level of achievement must have a significant influence on the field as a whole.

A PERM labor certification is required for all EB-2 beneficiaries, except for those whose work is deemed in the “national interest”, where the proposed employment prospectively benefits the U.S. economy, with respect to wages, working conditions, education, housing, healthcare, and the environment. EB-2 national interest waiver petitions do not require a job offer, thus university professors without a tenure track job offer may self-petition a NIW petition. A letter in support of the NIV waiver provided by an interested government agency can significantly strengthen the visa case.

Since the 1998 case of “Matter of New York State Department of Transportation”, wherein the court applied a new higher standard for beneficiaries, similar to that of extraordinary ability, national interest waivers have become increasingly more difficult to gain approval.

EB-2 petitions may be expedited with Premium Processing.

The national interest waiver of the PERM labor certification requirement can be granted at the discretion of the Attorney General.

 Three requirements must be met in order to qualify for the national interest waiver.

1.     The proposed employment must be of a substantial intrinsic merit, or work that substantially furthers a national goal.

2.     The proposed benefit to the economy must be national in scope, and benefit the nation as a whole.

3.     The national interest would be adversely affected if the labor certification requirement were to be required. This means that the national benefit of the proposed work is so significant that it clearly outweighs the important public interest in maintaining certain minimum wage and employment standards, through requirement of Labor Certification.