EB-2 NIW Case Study: Materials Engineer (Case Approved)

A Midwestern manufacturing company sought EB-2 NIW designation for its engineer from Brazil. The case was approved without RFE.

This is my third case study on EB-2 NIW. The first two case studies were for denials by USCIS affirmed by the AAO. Those denied cases were filed by other law firms. This approval was handled by my team.

• Case study #1 was for a Brazilian lawyer - HERE.

• Case study #2 was for a Real Estate Developer - HERE.

For this case, approved by the USCIS Nebraska Service Center in July 2022, the Brazilian engineer had a strong profile. Among other things, he had -

• published 7 peer-reviewed articles (40 citations); and

• was co-inventor on 3 patents.

Despite the strong profile, in any EB-2 NIW petition filed by a private sector employer, it is important to think about the proposed endeavor and whether it is of “national importance.”

Every successful EB-2 NIW petition must have a proposed endeavor of “national importance.”

A common concern by USCIS is that an EB-2 NIW petition for a private sector employer will only provide a localized benefit - namely a benefit to the employer and perhaps the employer’s customers.

In this case, we worked with the client to articulate a proposed endeavor focused on sustainable flexible packaging including innovations in anti-microbial features and scaling those innovations to the global market. Innovations in sustainable packaging was considered an endeavor of national importance.

This was the first EB-2 NIW case I have ever filed using premium processing. The case was converted from regular to premium processing and approved within a week of our premium processing request. The case was filed in February 2021, and converted to premium processing in the first week of July 2022, approved July 12, 2022.