Episode 14: USCIS issues Updated Guidance on EB-2 NIW (Jan 15, 2025)

1. EB-2 versus NIW

2. EB-2 NIW research professionals versus EB-2 NIW entrepreneurs.

EB-2

· Master’s degree.

• Ph.D. engineer who wants to open a bakery.

· Bachelor’s degree + 5 years of post-Bachelor’s work experience.

• Bachelor’s in Chemistry and 5 years of experience working in a gas station.

· “Exceptional Ability.”

• Relevant criteria.

• “Final merits determination.”

NIW

· Benefits to a specific employer, even one with a national footprint, are not sufficient to establish “national importance.”

· The candidate must show that their own individual endeavor stands to have broader implications, such as for a field, a region, or the public at large.

Examples –

• A person developing a drug at a pharmaceutical company may establish national importance by demonstrating the prospective public health benefits of the drug, not discussing the profits to the employer.

• A person developing a particular technology may not be able to establish “national importance” based on benefits to the employer or the employer’s customers.

• To establish national importance, the candidate must provide evidence of –

  • Widespread interest in adoption or licensing of technology; or

  • A novel and important manufacturing or operational process; or

  • How the technology stands to impact the development of similar technology by other companies.

A person using their company’s software for various clients will not be able to establish national importance.

Regarding letters of support –

The letter may be persuasive when the letter writer is a subject matter expert who has first-hand knowledge of the person’s achievements.

Letter should -

• Describe those achievements; and

• Provide specific examples of how the person is well-positioned to advance the endeavor; and

• Supplement the letter with independent evidence.

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Separate discussion about entrepreneurs later.

January 2022 versus January 2025: That’s All Folks!