EB-2 Visa

EB-2 petitions are designated for professionals of one of the following categories: (Advance Degree, Exceptional Ability, National Interest Waiver):

1. Advance Degree.

• This category requires a labor certification and job offer.
• The applicant has received a US advance degree (Master’s degree or higher) or a foreign equivalent.
• The applicant has received a bachelor’s degree and has 5 years of experience in the field.

Details:

The 5-year experience requirement is usually demonstrated by letters from current or former employers which should provide explanation of the applicant’s job performed for them.

2. Exceptional Ability.

• This category requires a labor certification and job offer.
• This category is designated for applicants with exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business.

Details:

It is expected that a person with exceptional ability will have a degree above the ordinary required in the field.

Exceptional ability is demonstrated by one of the three criteria below:

• academic record: degree, diploma, awards, special training
• 10 years of full-time experience in the field: letters from employers.
• license to practice the profession
• high salary or income from the services
• membership in the professional associations or evidence of recognition in the field by colleagues, peers, organizations, government.

3. National Interest Waiver (NIW)

• This category does not require a labor certification or job offer.
• The applicant must demonstrate that his immigration to the US would serve national interests.

Details:

Because this category waives the labor certification requirement, the applicant must meet an extremely high standard:

• The applicant’s proposed activity in the US must have both substantial merit and national importance.  Substantial merit is shown by recommendation letters from experts and organizations; publications and other evidence showing that why the applicant’s activity will have substantial merit.  National Importance can be demonstrated by citations of the applicant’s publications, funding by the US government of the field or projects where the applicant intends to work, recommendation letters discussing the importance of the project on the national level.
• The applicant must be well positioned to advance the proposed activity.  The USCIS will consider the following evidence for this requirement: awards, publications and citations, grants or government funding, membership in the professional associations which require certain level of achievement, patents and recommendation letters discussing the use of patents, licenses, contracts, recommendation letters.
• The applicant must meet the balance test to demonstrate that his activity would be beneficial to the US.In this final test, the USCIS ultimately weighs whether the waiver of the labor certification is appropriate in this case. For instance, if obtaining a labor certification will not allow the US petitioner to hire the employee with the job skills required for the position, whether the proposed work in the US will create additional jobs despite the waiver of the labor certification requirement

Please note that demonstrating meeting the above requirements does not waive the requirement that EB-2NIW applicant must hold either Advance degree or have Exception Ability as prescribed by the regulations.

EB-2 petitions require extensive knowledge of not only the regulations but also applicable case law, e.g. Matter of Dhanasar. While the requirements may sound straight forward at the first glance, they turn out to be overly complicated when applied by immigration officers. You can start your evaluation today by scheduling a consultation with our immigration attorney.