Case Summary:

The EB2-NIW or National Interest Waiver is a subcategory of the nonimmigrant visa given to those applicants who can prove the value of their work for the United States. So when an expert in the field of advanced engineering materials, with a proposed endeavor to work on enhancing material properties in order to improve the 3D NAND flash dry etch technique came to us, we made sure that his application was approved as soon as possible. Our team put its head together for his case and decided on collecting relevant data from his documents and using them to write a strong petition for him.

Our team found the following in the process:

• His research was undoubtedly of great importance because it directly contributed to developing new thermoelectric technology.
• Thermoelectricity is a growing technology that both converts electricity into temperature difference and heat flow and converts temperature and heat flow into electricity. His research directly addresses this issue by improving thermoelectric qualities leading to increased production levels and decreased resource consumption. His proposed endeavor also has broad implications for the United States.
• His research has resulted in 16 peer-reviewed journal articles (7 first-authored), 1 conference paper, and 3 patents.
• Not only this but his work has also gone on to influence his peers. That is, his publications have been cited a total of 232 times according to Google Scholar.
• Furthermore, his study has received funding from the Korean government’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning as well as from the Korean government’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
• Along with this his work also has found supporters in other experts who have known his research is beneficial to the United States. Some of these scholars said the following about his work:

“[The client’s] technique applies to…semiconductors and many more thermoelectric materials. The semiconductor industry has greatly benefited from these enhancements, and [the client] is committed to further advancing the global industry for the foreseeable future.”

“The United States has fallen behind in semiconductor manufacturing. This is clearly evidenced by the recent supply chain issues, as the majority of semiconductor chips are manufactured outside of the US. A solution to these issues is to boost the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry and bring in leading professionals with the appropriate set of skills to develop novel semiconductor equipment. [The client] is one such professional who has already brought numerous improvements to semiconductor dry etching equipment. [The client] continues to improve 3D NAND flash memory and semiconductor dry etching equipment in his current research. He hopes to bring his knowledge to the US, where he has the ability to influence semiconductor design and build a brighter future for national semiconductor manufacturing.”

All of these factors combined to help our client win this case without an RFE and that too with amazing speed. He obtained the NIW waiver only 20 days after applying for it. We are thankful to him for choosing us and we wish him the best of luck.