{"id":329,"date":"2010-05-07T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T20:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:54:10","slug":"national-interest-waiver-approvals-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329","title":{"rendered":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part II"},"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 \u2013 Part II<\/p>\n

In continuation of our ongoing segment of national interest waiver approvals, we’re going to discuss another previously approved case.\u00a0 In this matter, the applicant was an Indian national but unlike today, the EB2 category was current for Indian nationals, and we could file an NIW application and there was no extra waiting period beyond normal USCIS processing times.<\/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 II<\/p>\n

    Degree: MS in Biochemistry<\/p>\n

    Position: Senior Laboratory Technician (This position was amended prior to filing)<\/p>\n

    Field of Expertise: Stem Cell Derivation<\/p>\n

    Publications: 1 (4th author)<\/p>\n

    Citations: 8 including self citations<\/p>\n

    Abstracts: 11<\/p>\n

    Recommendation Letters: 3<\/p>\n

    The applicant in this case was an Indian national.\u00a0 The NIW application was approved although a difficult request for additional evidence was issued that held up the approval for an additional two months.\u00a0 However, the applicant still obtained his residency approximately 14 months 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

    By looking at the applicant’s job title at the time we took his case (tech), it would seem like a national interest waiver was a long shot.\u00a0 His publication record certainly did not help.\u00a0 However, we were able to identify some novel techniques the applicant developed as a tech and were able to convince his University employer to move him to a different position that is more associated with research prior to filing.\u00a0 This was certainly a difficult case but a case that we were very proud to get approved because the obvious accomplishments were just not there.\u00a0 If we took this case today we would consider filing a concurrent EB1 filing since the EB2 category is backlogged.<\/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-329","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 II - 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=329\" \/>\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 II - 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=329\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"US Immigration Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-07T20:36:00+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=329#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a\"},\"headline\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part II\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-07T20:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"keywords\":[\"National Interest Waiver\",\"NIW\"],\"articleSection\":[\"National Interest Waiver\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329\",\"name\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part II - US Immigration Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-07T20:36:00+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=329#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/?p=329#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part II\"}]},{\"@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 II - 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=329","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part II - 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=329","og_site_name":"US Immigration Blog","article_published_time":"2010-05-07T20:36:00+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=329#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329"},"author":{"name":"Immigration Lawyer Peter Messersmith","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/942156b9eec44c61e79c79bf5f6fc77a"},"headline":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part II","datePublished":"2010-05-07T20:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-26T20:54:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329"},"wordCount":461,"keywords":["National Interest Waiver","NIW"],"articleSection":["National Interest Waiver"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329","url":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329","name":"National Interest Waiver Approvals - Part II - US Immigration Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-07T20:36:00+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=329#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/?p=329#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"National Interest Waiver Approvals – Part II"}]},{"@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\/329","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=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2478,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/2478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.messersmithlaw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}