Occupation-Specific Benefits of Petitioning Under the National Interest Waiver (NIW) Standard

Beyond the benefits that depend on one’s nationality, petitioning under the NIW standard offers occupation-specific benefits, depending on whether the petitioner conducts research and what his or her occupation is.

Conducting Research

In our experience, one of the best ways to satisfy the NIW criteria is for the petitioner to be conducting research now. The research is most useful to an NIW petition when it is part of the official job duties of the petitioner’s occupation. Evidence that the petitioner is currently publishing, and thus disseminating research widely, is among the best evidence available to meet this standard.

Even if the petitioner does not conduct research as part of his or her official job duties, research done on the side or as a volunteer may still be sufficient.

Helping With Product Development

Another common situation involves clients who work for companies in roles directly involved in developing products or services that will be disseminated nationally. Although the specifics of each case matter greatly, the more closely a petitioner can be tied to products or services implemented or delivered nationally, the better the chances of meeting the NIW standard.

In short, we have developed highly successful strategies for petitioning under the EB-2 NIW standard in many common situations. Even for petitioners who do not fall into these categories, we have developed numerous approaches for the most unusual cases.