Case Summary:

The I-140 EB2-NIW or National Interest Waiver is a subcategory of the nonimmigrant visa for those foreign nationals who possess a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered in the sciences, arts, or business. Thus, the factors USCIS considers for National Interest Waiver are as follows:

• Their proposed endeavor has both substantial merit and national importance.
• They are well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor.
• On balance, it should be beneficial to the United States to waive the requirements of a job offer, and thus the labor certification.

So, when an expert in the field of materials science, with a proposed endeavor to work with device fabrication and photocurrent measurement techniques, came to NAILG seeking help with his NIW petition, our team assured him of the best service possible. His work in the area, we soon discovered, was to devise novel material characterization approaches that identify key materials for superior optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices.

Among other applications, his research was relevant to facilitating sustainable energy production and improving domestic technological infrastructure. Thus, it was of no little importance that his work was working directly to address global climate goals by promoting sustainable energy production.

When our team of experts had done their usual background check, they began collecting data for his petition letters. This meant going through:

• CVs
• Transcripts from colleges and universities
• Certificates of achievement from academic and professional institutions
• Letters of recommendation
• Proof of financial support from recognized institutions
• Evidence of his publications, citations, and peer review service in the field

Soon our team had been able to collect the following facts for his petition:

• His research has resulted in 6 peer-reviewed journal articles (two of them first-authored).
• These publications have been cited a total of 53 times according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of materials science.
• Furthermore, his study has received funding from 2 internationally recognized institutes, namely the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and the Civil-Military Technology Cooperation Program (ICMTC) of South Korea.
• Additionally, he had been able to obtain 2 letters of support from other experts in the field who recommended his research work.

We were thus able to successfully prove that our client proposes to continue his research on developing state-of-the-art material characterization approaches in order to identify materials for next-generation optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices, which is clearly an endeavor with substantial merit and national importance. We showed that his education, experience, expertise, record of publication and citation, and history of successful research in the field all indicate that he is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor. Hence, obtaining the NIW approval was not very difficult and it came through in less than 6 months. We are grateful to our client for trusting our team with his petition.