A National Interest Waiver (NIW) enables an immigrant to expedite the permanent residence (“Green Card”) process by skipping the labor market test (aka “PERM”) process that often takes two years. For the government to approve an NIW, an immigrant must show that it is in the U.S.’s best interests to waive this process and speed up the immigration process for someone who will contribute meaningfully to the U.S.
The contribution can be in areas including, but not limited to, business, entrepreneurship, science, technology, culture, health, or education.
To petition for an NIW, an immigrant must submit USCIS form I-140, and have a “proposed endeavor” – a compelling plan to convince USCIS that it is in the U.S.’s interest. Think of it like a business plan for the future of the individual – a specific plan with a positive impact for the U.S.
USCIS follows a 3-step process when evaluating NIW petitions (more on each of these, below):
- The proposed endeavor must have both substantial merit and national importance;
- The person must be well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor; and
- On balance, it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the job offer and thus the permanent labor certification requirements
Substantial Merit and National Importance
Here, merit means value or goodness. Curing cancer or another prominent disease; building a business that contributes to the economy and adds jobs; engineering semiconductors – these are things that have value to the country. As a contrary example, a software developer proposing to develop a gambling app for kids would not have “merit.”
National Importance means broad impact – nationally or globally. For example, developing a new curriculum to teach AI to high school students could have national importance if it were implemented nationally. But a curriculum for a single high school would not have national impact or importance.
Well Positioned to Advance the Proposed Endeavor
To evaluate if a person is well positioned to advance an endeavor, USCIS considers factors including, but not limited to:
- Education, skills and knowledge
- Record of success in similar efforts
- The quality of the person’s plan
- Any progress toward achieving the plan
- Interest or support in the plan (customers, investors, or others who would use or benefit from the service or product)
On Balance, it Would Benefit the U.S.
This is not a separate criterion, so much as a summary evaluation; if a proposed endeavor has merit and broad impact, and the person can demonstrate that they are well positioned to achieve the plan, the person would likely meet this criterion. USCIS also considers the urgency of the person’s contributions, and the practicality of the labor market as well.
As described, the most important part of the NIW petition is the proposed endeavor – showing that it has benefit, impact, and that the person is likely (“well positioned”) to achieve it.