{"id":317,"date":"2010-03-28T18:19:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T00:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:54:10","slug":"national-interest-waiver-approvals-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legal update (October 2026):<\/strong> This article describes a national interest waiver approval obtained under the legal framework in effect at that time. In December 2016, Matter of Dhanasar<\/em>, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016), replaced the earlier NIW framework. Under the current test, the proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance; the petitioner must be well positioned to advance the endeavor; and, on balance, waiving the job offer and labor certification requirements must benefit the United States. The petitioner must also meet the underlying EB-2 requirements. The original case history below is preserved, but its historical legal criteria and processing time observations should not be treated as current USCIS requirements or estimates.<\/p>\n

National Interest Waiver – Part I<\/p>\n

I’m going to introduce a new segment to my blog readers.\u00a0 Many current and potential clients contact me or my office to discuss whether or not they can qualify for certain applications like the national interest waiver.\u00a0 I wrote one previous entry describing the typical qualifications for our NIW clients but I would like to start a periodic series describing particular NIW cases that we have successfully handled in the past.<\/p>\n

Historical NIW Requirements (Before December 2016)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. That the alien seeks employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit;<\/li>\n
  2. That the proposed benefit will be national in scope; and<\/li>\n
  3. That the national interest would be adversely affected if a labor certification would be required for the alien.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    National Interest Waiver Approved Case Part I<\/p>\n

    Degree: PhD in Physics<\/p>\n

    Position: Research Associate<\/p>\n

    Field of Expertise: Materials Science<\/p>\n

    Publications: 14<\/p>\n

    Citations: 11 including self citations<\/p>\n

    Conferences: 21<\/p>\n

    Recommendation Letters: 4<\/p>\n

    The applicant in this case was a South Korea national.\u00a0 It was approved without a request for additional evidence and because the visa numbers were current for the EB2 category, the applicant obtained her residency approximately 1 year after filing.\u00a0 During the second half of 2009, our firm was regularly seeing some NIW petition approvals in less than three months. That describes our experience at that time, not a current USCIS processing time estimate.<\/p>\n

    This applicant surpassed the minimum requirements for an NIW application.\u00a0 Most of our clients have 4 publications or less and are employed as a post doc at a University.\u00a0 However, the applicant had a very poor publication to citation ratio.\u00a0 This could lead the adjudicating officer to believe that her work was not well regarded and of poor quality.\u00a0 In a sense this was true but we were able to overcome this issue by highlighting her other accomplishments and through her recommendation letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Legal update (October 2026): This article describes a national interest waiver approval obtained under the legal framework in effect at that time. In December 2016, Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016), replaced the earlier NIW framework. Under the current test, the proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance; the petitioner … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[190,66],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-interest-waiver","tag-national-interest-waiver","tag-niw"],"yoast_head":"\nNational Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Legal update (October 2026): This article describes a national interest waiver approval obtained under the legal framework in effect at that time. In December 2016, Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016), replaced the earlier NIW framework. Under the current test, the proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance; the petitioner ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a\"},\"headline\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part I\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317\"},\"wordCount\":422,\"keywords\":[\"National Interest Waiver\",\"NIW\"],\"articleSection\":[\"National Interest Waiver\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317\",\"name\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=317#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part I\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"US Immigration Blog\",\"description\":\"Provided by The Messersmith Law Firm, P.A.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a\",\"name\":\"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith\",\"description\":\"Peter Messersmith is an attorney located in Orlando, Florida. He has been practicing immigration law since 2002 and has represented thousands of immigrants and US businesses with their immigration needs.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.messersmithlaw.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog","og_description":"Legal update (October 2026): This article describes a national interest waiver approval obtained under the legal framework in effect at that time. In December 2016, Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016), replaced the earlier NIW framework. Under the current test, the proposed endeavor must have substantial merit and national importance; the petitioner ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317","og_site_name":"US Immigration Blog","article_published_time":"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00","author":"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317"},"author":{"name":"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a"},"headline":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part I","datePublished":"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317"},"wordCount":422,"keywords":["National Interest Waiver","NIW"],"articleSection":["National Interest Waiver"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317","url":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317","name":"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part I - US Immigration Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-03-29T00:19:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=317#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part I"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/","name":"US Immigration Blog","description":"Provided by The Messersmith Law Firm, P.A.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a","name":"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith","description":"Peter Messersmith is an attorney located in Orlando, Florida. He has been practicing immigration law since 2002 and has represented thousands of immigrants and US businesses with their immigration needs.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.messersmithlaw.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}