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A National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition
falls into the employment-based immigration second preference category.
Normally, to file an employment-based second preference petition,
a job offer and approved labor certification is a pre-requisite.
However, a National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition requests that
the otherwise required U.S. job offer requirement, and thus the
labor certification requirement, be waived for the sake of the "national
interest."
In order to file an NIW petition, the candidate must be able to
demonstrate that he is seeking work in an area of substantial intrinsic
merit to the US, that the benefit from the candidate's proposed
activity will be national in scope, and that such national interest
would be adversely affected if a Labor Certification were required
for the alien applicant.
Since the requirement of a job offer is waived, an individual,
even if he/she has no employer, may file an NIW petition on behalf
of himself/herself, while a U.S. employer may file an NIW on behalf
of the alien as well.
After the September 11th terrorist attack, the current economic
slowdown, and the tightening of U.S. immigration policy, NIW petitions
are now harder than ever. Moreover, the different USCIS Service
Centers have different approaches and requirements. For more information
about the recent developments regarding NIW petitions, please click
here. The number of
NIW inquiries that we have recently received increases significantly,
many of which are from those who received a Request for Additional
Evidence from USCIS as result of insufficient self-preparation or
filing by inexperienced attorneys. Because of the complexity and
high standards involved with an NIW petition, we strongly recommend
you to seek assistance from experienced attorneys, which is the
key to your success, especially under the current situation.
Nonetheless, an NIW petition's clear advantage over other regular
employment based immigrant petitions, i.e., no need of labor certificate
and permanent job offer, still makes it an attractive choice for
scholars, researchers, and Ph.D. students. After all of the factors
that have made it more difficult to be granted an NIW, the approval
rate of our well-prepared NIW cases remains very high.
For more information on National Interest
Wavier, please click one of the following topics:
Send us an online inquiry and receive a free evaluation!
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