On the issue that NIW is not bound by American national interests

National interest exemption (NIW) is a special case of the second priority employment immigrant (EB-2) in American immigration law. In the second priority application for normal professional immigrants, applicants need not only American employers, but also American employers to provide permanent job offers, and their employers apply to the Department of Labor (DOL) for labor certification (LC). After obtaining the approval of the work permit, apply for immigration to the Immigration Bureau (I- 140). However, the exemption of national interests is a special case. Based on the consideration of national interests, the U.S. government exempts foreigners who have made important contributions to national interests from the commitment requirements for permanent jobs and the tedious application for work permits, so that they can directly apply to the Immigration Bureau for immigration and obtain green cards.

The NIW clause in American immigration law is very abstract and general (see Article 203(b)(2)(B) of American immigration law). To sum up, if the Immigration Bureau thinks that it is in the national interest of the United States, it can exempt foreigners from applying for work permits in green card applications. At present, the specific standard to measure whether foreigners are in line with national interests comes from the ruling and interpretation of the "New York State Department of Transportation" by the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). AAO's ruling first established a triple standard to measure national interests. To sum up, foreigners who want to get NIW visa-free and apply for immigration directly must meet the following three conditions:

The applicant's field of work must have inherent advantages); Or the utility related to the national interests of the United States;

The nature of the applicant's work needs to be nationwide, not "regional"; Besides,

If applicants are required to apply for a green card through a work permit, it will harm the national interests of the United States.

To sum up, the most favorable conditions for applying for national interest exemption are: no need for American employers to apply for immigration directly, employers' permanent work commitment, and cumbersome work permit application. Moreover, even if there is no employer or no employer's support, the applicant can apply for immigration in his own name and get a green card. Of course, employers can also come forward to handle immigration for applicants.

Because applying for a work permit is a tedious, time-consuming and expensive procedure, its purpose is to determine whether there are qualified American workers who are qualified for the positions applied by foreigners. In addition to consuming time and money, once there are American workers who meet the minimum requirements, the application process of work permit is in danger of being rejected. Even if the foreigner considers other non-work permit application factors, he is more suitable for this position. In addition, applying for a work permit requires a long-term and stable employment relationship. Once the applicant needs to leave or change jobs, all immigration applications will be invalid. However, national interest exemption is not restricted by work permit, and there is no requirement for employment relationship. After submitting the application for national interest exemption, the applicant can change his job at will, as long as the new job belongs to the same field as the one in the application for national interest exemption. In addition, while waiting for the approval of national interest exemption, applicants can submit other types of immigration applications at the same time; Such as the first priority (EB- 1). Generally speaking, national interest exemption should be an important shortcut for many foreign postdoctoral students to apply for immigration.

At present, the speed of economic development is slowing down, the immigration policy in the United States is gradually tightening, and it is more difficult to apply for national interest exemption. Recently, we have received a lot of inquiries about national interest immunity. A considerable number of these cases are due to the receipt of the "Request for Supplementary Evidence" (RFE) issued by the Immigration Bureau. A considerable part of this situation is due to the applicant's own application, or the application materials are insufficient, and the application is submitted by an inexperienced lawyer. In addition, all applications for national interest exemption are handled by Texas Immigration Center and Nebraska Immigration Center, and there are still many differences in the specific methods and standards for handling national interest exemption applications between the two immigration centers. If you want to know more about the latest changes and progress of national interest exemption, please click the Immigration Bureau to handle the new changes in NIW applications. Due to the complexity and high standard of the application for national interest exemption, under the current circumstances, we strongly recommend that the applicant seek the help of an experienced lawyer in order to succeed directly.

At present, except for applicants born in Chinese mainland and India, there is no timetable for applying for national interest exemption, that is, all applicants with national interest exemption can submit their immigration application (I- 140) and their application for status adjustment (I-485). Applicants born in Chinese mainland and India can also obtain the approval of NIW I- 140 first, and submit their application for identity adjustment when EB-2 visa quota is available.

For many scientific researchers, doctoral students, postdoctoral engineers and technicians, compared with other immigrant categories, national interest exemption can save a lot of time and money when applying for labor cards, and its advantages are quite obvious. Although it is increasingly difficult to apply for national interest exemption, the success rate is still quite high through careful preparation by experienced lawyers.