What is the EB-2 NIW?
The EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) is a U.S. Green Card category that lets you bypass the usual red tape – no job offer, no employer, and no labor certification required. It is designed for people whose work serves the national interest of the United States.
In plain English? If you’re building something that matters – in science, tech, healthcare, business, or public policy – and it benefits the U.S. at large, this is your route. No corporate sponsor required. You lead the way.
Think of it as the green card for builders, thinkers, and doers. You're not applying as someone who might be helpful – you're showing that you already are.
Who is the EB-2 NIW For?
The EB-2 NIW is tailor-made for people whose work moves the needle. Whether you're driving innovation, solving public problems, or building something that matters, this green card is for professionals who serve more than just themselves.
You might qualify if you're:
A founder, researcher, or engineer working on breakthrough tech
A healthcare innovator solving public health challenges
An academic whose work influences policy or national progress
An entrepreneur whose product addresses critical U.S. priorities
A professional with a Master’s degree (or a Bachelor’s + 5 years of deep, progressive experience)
Someone with exceptional ability – not just “good,” but significantly ahead of the curve in your field
In short: If your work has real-world impact beyond your job title – if it creates value the U.S. can’t afford to ignore – you might be a strong candidate for NIW.
Why the EB-2 NIW could be a Game-Changer
The EB-2 NIW gives you control in a system that usually ties your future to an employer. It eliminates the biggest bottlenecks in the U.S. green card process and puts your impact at the center of the case.
Here’s what sets it apart:
No employer sponsorship required
You don’t need a company to petition for you. You lead the process yourself.
No labor certification (PERM)
Skip the 12–18 months of testing the job market to prove there’s no U.S. worker for your role.
Self-petitioning is allowed
You present your own narrative, highlighting why your work serves the national interest.
Green card for your family
Your spouse and unmarried children under 21 can also get permanent residency.
Freedom to live and work anywhere
Unlike employer-tied visas, you’re not locked into one job or location. Once you get the green card, you have full mobility.
In short: If your work has real-world impact beyond your job title – if it creates value the U.S. can’t afford to ignore – you might be a strong candidate for NIW.
EB-2 NIW is ideal for independent builders – founders, scientists, engineers, and innovators – because it lets you self-petition, skip employer sponsorship, and avoid labor certification. However, to get that flexibility you must meet key hurdles: hold an advanced degree or show exceptional ability; present a concrete U.S. endeavor with substantial merit and national importance; prove you’re well-positioned to advance it; and show that, on balance, waiving labor certification benefits the U.S.
Step 1: Prove You Qualify for EB-2
You must fall into one of the following two groups:
1. Advanced Degree Professional
You might qualify if you hold:
A Master’s degree or higher (or a foreign equivalent),
or
A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) plus 5 years of progressive experience in your field.
How to prove it:
Academic transcripts and diploma
Letters from former employers outlining your roles, responsibilities, and growth trajectory
Credential evaluation (for non-U.S. degrees)
Note: if applying via the advanced degree route for EB-2, your education and specialty experience must be closely related to the proposed endeavor, while the exceptional ability route requires your field of talent to be directly related to the endeavor.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
Degree not clearly equivalent to a U.S. master’s (or bachelor’s + 5) – weak or conclusory credential evaluations, missing transcripts/syllabi, or mismatch between the claimed specialty and the role/endeavor.
Assuming any master’s works. USCIS looks for a related specialty; a degree in an unrelated field can sink the case unless the record ties it credibly to the job/endeavor.
Field relevance not shown when the education and (if used) specialty experience might be relevant but is not obviously relevant to the proposed endeavor/position.
Insufficient proof of progressive 5-year experience – letters lack detailed duties, dates, and how responsibility grew; experience is unrelated to the specialty
2. Exceptional Ability
You must demonstrate exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business. Exceptional ability means “a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered”.
You must prove that you meet at least three of the criteria of exceptional ability.
Official academic record showing a degree, diploma, certificate, or similar award in your field of exceptional ability.
Employer letters proving 10+ years of full-time experience in your occupation.
Professional license or certification for your occupation.
Proof of high salary or remuneration indicating exceptional ability.
Membership in relevant professional associations.
Recognition of your achievements and significant contributions by peers, government, or professional/business organizations.
Comparable evidence is acceptable if the above do not neatly apply.
This is not a checkbox exercise. Letters, memberships, or salary only helps if it actually proves exceptional ability.
Step 2: Qualify for the National Interest Waiver
Meeting the EB-2 criteria is only half the equation. The real challenge – and opportunity – is convincing USCIS that your work is valuable enough to bypass the usual labor market testing.
You do this by passing the Three-Prong Test from Matter of Dhanasar. Here’s how to think about it – and how to build your case.
Prong 1: Your Endeavor Has Substantial Merit and National Importance
Prong 1 requires demonstrating that your proposed endeavor – your specific work plan or business venture – has both substantial merit (intrinsic value) and national importance (broader implications for the U.S.). For tech professionals and founders, this typically means connecting your work to U.S. priorities like technological innovation, economic competitiveness, national security, or public welfare.
1. Defining Your Endeavor
A strong endeavor description includes:
What: The specific technology, product, or innovation you're developing
Who benefits: Target users, sectors, or populations
How: Your approach, methodology, or business model
Where: Geographic scope and implementation strategy
Timeline: Key milestones and projected outcomes
Your role: Position, employer/company, funding, team, and resources
Make direct impacts explicit: What changes if you succeed? Be concrete about the outcomes your work will produce.
2. Substantial Merit: Proving Intrinsic Value
Your endeavor must demonstrate inherent worth in areas such as:
Innovation: Advancing technology or creating novel solutions
Economic impact: Job creation, productivity gains, or market transformation
Public benefit: Health, safety, education, or environmental improvements
Scientific advancement: Research that expands knowledge or enables breakthroughs
Strong evidence includes:
Patents, publications, or technical innovations
Products with demonstrated user adoption
Research cited by peers or incorporated into industry practices
Ventures attracting significant investment or partnerships
Example: "Developing an open-source AI framework for medical diagnostics" shows more merit than simply "working as an AI engineer."
3. National Importance: Beyond Your Employer
The critical test: Does your work have implications beyond your company's bottom line?
Your endeavor must benefit:
An entire field or industry (e.g., advancing cybersecurity practices industry-wide)
A geographic region or demographic (e.g., improving rural broadband access)
The public at large (e.g., developing accessible health technology)
U.S. strategic interests (e.g., strengthening supply chain resilience, advancing critical technologies)
Strong evidence includes:
Direct alignment with U.S. policy priorities: CHIPS Act, AI Executive Orders, clean energy initiatives, infrastructure modernization
Industry-wide adoption potential: Licensing agreements, partnerships, or pilot programs with multiple organizations
Public welfare impact: Demonstrable benefits to health, safety, education, or economic opportunity
Field advancement: Contributing to standards, open-source ecosystems, or enabling technologies others build upon
Example: Show your endeavour doesn't just serve your customers – it's creating a new category, enabling other businesses, or addressing a market failure with public consequences.
Recent 2025 USCIS policy updates emphasize alignment with critical and emerging technologies (e.g., AI, cybersecurity) for STEM-related endeavors, making this prong more accessible for tech innovators.
Common non-qualifiers
- Generic occupation descriptions without a specific project or goals.
- Classroom teaching or routine client work with no field-level impact.
- Pointing to a labor shortage or industry importance in the abstract.
- Company profit projections without public or market-wide benefit.
- Custom software or consulting for individual clients only, with no evidence of wider adoption or spillover benefits.
Prong 2: You Are Well-Positioned to Advance the Endeavor
While Prong 1 focuses on what you'll do, Prong 2 focuses on you – demonstrating that you have the credentials, track record, resources, and momentum to actually execute your proposed endeavor.
The key question: Why are you specifically the right person to advance this work?
USCIS considers four main factors:
Your qualifications: Education, skills, knowledge, and track record in related efforts
Your planning: Detailed proposals or plans you've developed for future activities
Your progress: Steps already taken toward achieving the endeavor
Your traction: Interest or support from customers, users, investors, or relevant stakeholders
You don't need to prove your endeavor will definitely succeed – but you must show you're credibly positioned to advance it with substantiated evidence, not unsubstantiated claims.
1. Demonstrate Your Qualifications
Core credentials:
Advanced degrees, specialized certifications, or professional licenses
Technical skills and domain expertise directly relevant to your endeavor
Publications, patents, trademarks, or copyrights you've developed
Awards, grants, or recognition from government entities or industry organizations
Track record of success:
Previous roles where you built similar technology or launched comparable ventures
Measurable achievements (products shipped, papers cited, companies scaled, funding raised)
Evidence your work has influenced your field or been adopted by others
Media coverage or published articles about your achievements
For example, for tech professionals: Highlight contributions to major projects, open-source ecosystems, or technical breakthroughs at previous employers.
For tech professionals: Highlight contributions to major projects, open-source ecosystems, or technical breakthroughs at previous employers. For founders: Emphasize prior startup experience, successful exits, product launches, or scaling achievements – even if in different sectors.
2. Show Detailed Planning
Strong evidence includes:
Comprehensive business or research plans you developed or significantly contributed to
Technical roadmaps with specific milestones and timelines
Go-to-market strategies with defined user acquisition or deployment plans
Financial projections supported by realistic assumptions
Business plans alone are insufficient. They must be accompanied by independent evidence showing feasibility and your capability to execute.
3. Prove Progress
Demonstrate momentum:
Product development: Working prototypes, beta versions, or launched products
Market validation: User metrics, customer contracts, or pilot programs
Research milestones: Preliminary findings, published papers, or conference presentations
Business formation: Incorporated entity, assembled team, secured office/lab space
For early-stage founders: Even pre-revenue companies can show progress through development milestones, LOIs, pilot agreements, or accelerator participation. For employed professionals: Document how your current role advances toward the endeavor or how you're transitioning (e.g., part-time startup work, approved corporate spinout plans).
4. Show Traction
Financial backing:
Investment from U.S. venture capital, angel investors, or startup accelerators (amounts appropriate to your field)
Government grants (SBIR/STTR, NSF, NIH, DOE, etc.)
Corporate partnerships with funding commitments
Documented plans for financial sustainability
Market or stakeholder validation:
Letters from prospective customers, users, or strategic partners expressing interest
Signed contracts, MOUs, or licensing agreements
Correspondence from government agencies or quasi-governmental entities supporting your work
Evidence of companies using technology you developed or contributed to developing
Industry interest and recognition:
Invitations to speak at major conferences or advisory roles
Inclusion in accelerator programs (Y Combinator, Techstars, etc.)
Media coverage in reputable tech or business publications
Citations of your research or adoption of your methodologies by others
Investment or contracts are not mandatory. Early-stage founders can demonstrate traction through letters of intent, pilot agreements, in-kind support from established organizations, strong advisor backing, or early traction metrics. USCIS evaluates the totality of evidence – show credible validation appropriate to your stage and situation.
Prong 3: Waiving the Job Offer and Labor Certification Requirement Benefits the United States
Once you've established your endeavor's importance (Prong 1) and your fit to deliver (Prong 2), Prong 3 requires demonstrating that waiving the labor certification requirement serves the national interest – that the benefits of allowing you to proceed without it outweigh the protections that labor certification normally provides to U.S. workers.
The balancing test: Does the national benefit of your immediate contribution outweigh the need to verify no qualified U.S. workers are available?
Understanding the Labor Certification Waiver
The labor certification process (PERM) is designed to protect U.S. workers by ensuring foreign workers don't adversely affect job opportunities, wages, or working conditions. However, Congress recognized that in certain cases, the national interest is better served by waiving this requirement.
Your task is to show that the standard labor certification process – which focuses on a geographically limited labor market – would either be impractical or would diminish the national benefit your work provides.
USCIS evaluates the following factors.
1. Impracticality of Labor Certification
Argue that the labor certification process doesn't fit your situation.
For entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals:
You're creating your own position (no traditional employer to sponsor you)
You're starting a company that will employ U.S. workers, not displacing them
Your role requires you to be founder/owner, which can't be filled through traditional hiring
For professionals with unique capabilities:
Your qualifications exceed minimum job requirements in ways labor certification can't capture
Your specific combination of skills, knowledge, and track record is difficult to replicate
The employer needs you specifically, not just someone who meets baseline requirements
2. Benefits Even If U.S. Workers Are Available
Demonstrate that your contribution provides national benefits that transcend local labor market concerns.
Economic impact:
Job creation potential for U.S. workers
Economic revitalization (particularly in underserved regions)
Revenue generation or GDP contribution
Strengthening U.S. competitiveness in critical sectors
Strategic value:
Advancing technologies critical to U.S. national security
Enhancing U.S. leadership in emerging tech fields
Addressing gaps in critical infrastructure or capabilities
Contributing to supply chain resilience
Public benefit:
Improvements to public health, safety, or welfare
Environmental or sustainability advances
Educational or workforce development impacts
A labor shortage in your occupation alone is insufficient. You must show why your specific contribution matters regardless of worker availability.
3. Urgency Warranting Immediate Action
Argue that delay from labor certification would diminish the national benefit.
Time-sensitive opportunities:
First-mover advantage in critical technology race
Window to address emerging threat or urgent need
Market timing essential to U.S. competitive positioning
Rapidly evolving field where delay means lost leadership
Critical national priorities:
Responding to public health or safety concerns
Supporting national security imperatives
Addressing infrastructure vulnerabilities
Meeting policy-driven timelines (e.g., climate goals, technology standards)
Example: "The 12-18 month PERM process would allow foreign competitors to establish dominance in quantum-resistant cryptography, undermining U.S. leadership in post-quantum security infrastructure."
Special Considerations for STEM Professionals
USCIS recognizes the critical importance of advanced STEM degrees and their role in maintaining U.S. technological leadership, particularly in critical and emerging technologies and fields vital to national competitiveness or security.
What qualifies as critical and emerging technology?
USCIS evaluates based on governmental, academic, and authoritative sources. Your evidence should demonstrate work in fields where U.S. activity and investment are essential to:
Maintaining technological leadership over strategic competitors
Achieving peer status among allies in research-intensive industries
Advancing capabilities important to national security or economic competitiveness
Special Considerations for Entrepreneurs
While entrepreneurs can be strong EB-2 NIW candidates, broad assertions about economic benefits and job creation are insufficient. You must demonstrate specific, substantiated national importance and personal positioning.
What Generally Does NOT Work:
Opening a consulting firm in a nationally important field (without broader impact)
General statements about your industry's importance (e.g., "automotive industry is vital")
Limited relevant experience (e.g., bank teller opening banking consultancy)
Business plans without corroborating evidence
What Could Work:
Clear connection between your background and proposed venture
Concrete progress: Customer traction, investor interest, partnerships, milestones achieved
Specific projections: Market size, job creation, revenue growth—supported by evidence
Record of success translating to future plans
The EB-2 NIW Application Process
EB-2 NIW has two main stages. You self-petition with Form I-140, then apply for your Green Card when your priority date is current. NIW waives the employer offer and labor certification.
Stage 1: Form I-140 – Immigrant Petition
This is your main submission to USCIS.
You’ll file Form I-140 as a self-petitioner, submitting detailed evidence to prove:
There’s no need for an employer or labor certification.
Processing time:
Stage 2: Green Card Application
Once your I-140 is approved, you must wait for your priority date to become current – essentially your place in the visa queue – because annual limits cap how many Green Cards can be issued each year. For most countries the wait is about 2 years, with India and China much longer.
After your priority date becomes current, there are two options:
Adjustment of Status (I-485): If you’re already in the U.S.
Consular Processing: If you’re applying from abroad, through a U.S. embassy or consulate
Processing time: from a couple to several months, depending on your location and USCIS or local consulate workload.
Why Work With CSMPLT
EB-2 NIW is not merely a compilation of evidence – it's a strategic submission requiring you to prove: (1) you meet EB-2 requirements (advanced degree or exceptional ability), and (2) you satisfy all three prongs for a National Interest Waiver.
How CSMPLT Can Help:
Gap Analysis & Evidence Sourcing – We analyze your materials, identify what's missing, and actively research third-party evidence from public sources to corroborate your achievements and meet specific criteria.
Professional Documentation – We structure, label, and format all exhibits with explanatory captions, build comprehensive evidence indexes with cross-references, and arrange certified translations when required.
Continuous Case Refinement – We track remaining gaps, request additional materials as needed, and adjust strategy as new information arrives to strengthen your position.
Independent Quality Control – Beyond your dedicated case team, at least two senior professionals independently review your entire case to catch inconsistencies, errors, or missed opportunities.
Proactive Weakness Management – We anticipate potential questions or objections evaluators might raise and address them directly in your application before submission.
Full-Service Case Management – We handle every administrative detail from document preparation to translation coordination, so you focus on your work while we manage the complex logistics.
The CSMPLT Difference:
Strategic Positioning – We map your unique achievements against evaluation criteria to find your strongest competitive angle and craft your narrative around it
Narrative Mastery – we craft a compelling arc that connects your past achievements to future potential
Evidence Curation – we build as strong a case as it can be using data, metrics, and third-party validation
We Drive the Process – from strategic brainstorming sessions and stakeholder coordination to deadline management and final approvals. You focus on your work while we ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Risk Mitigation – we stress-test your application against common failure points
Over the years, we've handled this process multiple times and have gathered proven best practices and refined approaches. We've witnessed numerous successful cases, rejections, and rejections that were ultimately turned into successes through strategic appeals or subsequent applications.
We bring deep expertise, specialized know-how, and established best practices that help avoid common pitfalls while maximizing your chances of building the strongest possible case.
We invest 300-600 person-hours from multiple team members on each project – time that we save you from spending on learning the intricacies of this complex process and going through this hardly pleasant journey alone.
This is a painful process. While we cannot alleviate the related pain completely (e.g., you probably won't allow us to search your computer archive for that document you remembered you have), we do everything humanly possible and are ready to take on all related assignments to make it easier for you (e.g., researching, analyzing, and compiling evidence from publicly available materials). Simply put: if any aspect of this process can be delegated, delegate it to us. We'll handle everything we possibly can so you can focus on what only you can do.
Finally, this is our job – we work full-time on your case while you work full-time on your job. The result: higher quality outcomes, delivered much faster.
