Employment-based immigration
EB2 NIW Visa: Everything You Need to Know
EB2 NIW visa (aka National Interest Waiver) is an immigrant visa for people that work on a project or a job that has positive impact on their industry, field or entire nation. In this EB2 NIW visa guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about the EB2 NIW visa requirements, processing time, and costs.
By:
Chelsea Spinos
Reviewer:
Simon Craven, Esq.
9 min read • Feb 10, 2024
Key takeaways
The EB2 visa is an employment-based immigrant visa (green card) for those who have an advanced degree or exceptional ability
To qualify for EB2 NIW, you must qualify for both the EB2 visa through master's degree or extraordinary ability, and a National Interest Waiver
National Interest Waiver projects require you to show how your work benefits your industry, field or country as a whole and not just your company (we will explain these EB2 NIW requirements in this guide in simple terms!)
The EB2 NIW visa is a second-preference employment-based immigrant visa, which can lead to permanent residence (aka “Green Card”). The EB2 NIW visa is designed for those who have an advanced degree or exceptional ability, and can demonstrate that their work is of national interest to the U.S.
NIW stands for “National Interest Waiver”. It allows you to self-petition (file without a sponsoring employer) and avoid the lengthy Permanent Labor Certification Process (PERM).
The “Waiver” means that the U.S. government is making an exception in certain cases that are in the national interest, and therefore waives the requirement to go through the PERM process.
Applying for the EB2 visa through a National Interest Waiver (NIW) is desirable by many immigrants for two main reasons:
It’s much faster than a PERM-based process, and
Independence from an employer through self-petition, which means you have more control over your destiny
These aspects make the EB-2 NIW visa a favorite among many of our clients!
More than 32,000 people have received their EB2 NIW visa in 2023!
USCIS data for EB2 NIW visa
Processing time
Do you need a job offer?
Does your employer need to be your sponsor?
Average approval rate
NO
NO
~80%
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Manifest Tip: You can apply for both EB2 NIW and EB2 PERM processes in parallel to maximize your chances of success. The cost will be higher, but this strategy could give you another option in case one path doesn’t lead to success.
OK, now that we have covered the differences between the EB2 visa based on a National Interest Waiver (NIW) and the EB2 visa based on PERM, let’s focus on the NIW visa path.
There are two EB2 NIW requirements you need to meet to qualify for this visa:
In order to qualify for an EB-2 visa, you need to either hold an advanced degree – like a Master’s degree or higher, or foreign equivalent) – or have “exceptional ability” in your field.
Let’s take a look at each EB2 visa requirement separately.
Starting with the degree requirement – you must have received an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor’s, such as a Master’s or Doctorate degree, or a foreign equivalent. Now, if you only have a Bachelor’s degree, you could still meet this EB2 requirement if you have more than 5 years of progressive experience in your field of specialization. And when we say progressive experience, we mean you have advanced your career.
One thing to note – just having an advanced degree or its equivalent isn’t necessarily enough to meet this EB2 visa requirement. Your job must also normally require an advanced degree. For instance, if you have a Harvard law degree, but you work as a barista, you might not qualify for the EB2 visa.
USCIS wants you to meet 3 out of 6 criteria below to be considered as someone with exceptional ability:
Degree or similar academic award relating to your area of exceptional ability
10+ years of full-time experience in your occupation
A license/certification for your profession or occupation
Exceptionally high salary
Membership in a professional association(s)
Prizes, Awards, or other Recognition for your achievements
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If you’re still not quite sure if you qualify for the EB-2 visa, don’t sweat it. Here at Manifest, we can analyze all of your evidence and provide you with a visa eligibility assessment – without a commitment to filing your visa just yet.
Request a written Visa Eligibility Assessment
Manifest Tip: Remember, you only need to meet 1 out of the 2 options for the EB2 Visa. Either you need to have an advanced degree OR exceptional ability, but you don’t necessarily need both.
Now to meet the NIW requirements, you need to check off the following criteria:
Your project has substantial merit and national importance.
The NIW requirement applies broadly to lots of areas like business, entrepreneurship, science, tech, culture, health, law, and education. In determining whether your project is nationally important, USCIS will consider its potential impact for the future.
In other words, whatever you do should benefit the country, your field or industry more broadly, than just your company or you.
Good
Research project focused on cancer treatment that has received a grant
Entrepreneur who is already building a company in the U.S. and can prove they can create specific new jobs for Americans
AI researcher who created a new ranking algorithm for Open AI
Executive who’s coming to launch a new market for a French company that has a proven business plan and committed resources and will create new jobs in underserved areas of America
Bad
Software engineer who does generic SAP software integration
Legal analyst who does research for attorney
Junior researcher without prior track record or citations
Senior Auditor at an accounting firm doing regular auditors' work
You got it, right? You have to prove that your work has a positive impact nationally, or on the industry at large. The impact must be tangible and specific.
In simple words, your project must benefit your industry, field or country as a whole. Not just your company or you.
Business and Entrepreneurship
Direct and clear positive economic impact for the U.S.
New Jobs for Americans (especially great if in underserved areas!)
Returns for American investors
Job creation must be direct and substantial. Proven by a business plan. Your project must already exist and have proof.
Science
Your project can positively impact the broader academic community and add value to the industry as a whole. It's not enough to just be a scientist in a hot field (e.g. climate tech), but to have a project that can impact the field as a whole.
USCIS will evaluate your potential. Immediate economic impact is not required. Having approved grants could be very valuable in your case.
Tech
You're developing or participating in the development of a project that can have National positive impact or be innovative. For example, Al algorithm with Open Al or you have built an app widely adopted by others and ideally featured by the App Store or Google Play store.
Your must have a track record that your previous work was widely adopted. For your new project, try to bring evidence of funding, adoption or circulation.
Health
Your project can advance your specific field on a national or international scale. For example, you're an experienced researcher developing a new drug or a new type of therapy that can be widely adopted and can positively impact your field.
Having approved grants or funding could be huge. Having wide adoption of your method or drug could be very valuable too.
Culture
You're a cinematographer who has previously had success and is working on a new production technique that has received preliminary funding commitments and has potential to be widely adopted in the industry.
Having funding commitments (soft commitments work too) and/or distribution commitments could be huge to show wide adoption.
You are well-positioned to advance the proposed project.
The government wants to ensure that not only your project is impactful, but that you’re the ideal person to do it. For this NIW requirement, you need to show that you have the right background, skills, experience, and expertise to make that project come to life.
So, how will USCIS evaluate your NIW eligibility?
They will consider many factors such as:
Your education
Skills
Knowledge
Record of success in a related field
Any progress toward achieving your project so far
Interest of any potential customers, users, investors, or other individuals for your project
Good
A researcher who’s been doing cancer research for 10+ years in France wrote scientific papers about the topic and those papers received circulation in their field. They plan to continue working on cancer research in America.
An influencer with 500,000 followers on IG or TikTok that creates unique interviews with various guests, has received awards and created videos that get a lot of views as proven by objective YouTube data.
A software engineer who was a CTO for an online dating company and built a matching algorithm that was widely adopted by other CTOs of similar companies in their country and who has an idea of how to implement it on a large scale in America and has raised pre-seed funding.
Bad
An accountant with 10+ years of experience working at a company doing the same accounting job as other accountants in the organization.
A junior researcher fresh out of school whose research isn’t widely cited or circulated yet.
A front-end engineer working in a tech startup alongside 3 other front-end engineers doing similar work.
Factors that may increase your EB2 NIW approval rate
Several factors could help boost your EB2 NIW approval rate, including:
If your role is in the Science Technology Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) fields and has an urgency to ensure the competitiveness of the U.S. on a global scale.
If your role is supporting public health or safety in the U.S. and has an urgency related to those fields. For example, if you’re a healthcare professional during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If your endeavor (business) has the potential to generate considerable revenue.
If your business may lead to job creation for Americans.
If you have unique knowledge or skills which cannot be appropriately captured by the labor certification.
Manifest Tip: Remember it is not enough to meet the EB2 NIW requirements by having a Master's degree or Exceptional Ability. You must also qualify for a National Interest Waiver by showing that your project can positively impact your industry or field.
We often come across situations where people with successful careers in finance, accounting, legal, and research meet the EB2 requirements under the PERM process. But, they may not have a clearly defined project in the national interest, making them ineligible for an EB2 NIW.
If you feel like you don’t qualify, no worries. There may be other visa to green card options that might be a better fit for you.
We built an intuitive quiz to help you see what is your expected EB2 visa approval rate
Entrepreneurs often don't take the traditional career route, and there's no one-size-fits-all structure for a startup. USCIS understands this when looking at NIW cases for entrepreneurs. For entrepreneurs establishing or expanding a business in the U.S., the government requires specific evidence of substantial economic benefits that would result from your business.
Job creation must be direct and substantial to meet NIW requirements
Including relevant growth metrics in terms of revenue generation and/or jobs created in the U.S., can really support your NIW case. Now, when it comes to the magic number of new jobs, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. It's tailored to each business and the broader benefits it brings. This is where working with an experienced NIW lawyer becomes crucial!
Let’s take a look at some evidence you can include in your NIW application, if you’re an entrepreneur:
Evidence of proposed or actual investments
Incubator or accelerator participation
Receipt of awards or grants (including funding)
Development of intellectual property
Significant revenue generation
Do I need a business plan for an EB2 NIW visa?
While a business plan can be helpful, it isn't sufficient by itself without documented past success and interest from customers and investors. Even a meticulously prepared plan with financial projections and market analysis may not be enough to meet the EB2 NIW requirements. However, especially for new businesses, a well-crafted business plan can be supportive for your EB2 NIW application.
We've seen many successful EB2 NIW cases for researchers and applicants in this category. But, here's the deal – it's not just about being a scientist in a cutting-edge field like climate tech. Having a clear project that puts your skills and knowledge to use for the greater good is equally vital.
Here's some good news for the science and research crowd: USCIS is pretty keen on STEM fields (that's Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math), and having an advanced degree, especially a PhD, can give your NIW case a real boost.
Another thing is that USCIS is forward-thinking, meaning you can qualify based on your future vision for the project and the problem you want to tackle. You don't necessarily need evidence of specific economic benefits. If your research has broader or indirect benefits, it could still qualify for the EB-2 NIW requirements.
You’ll have the best shot at EB2 NIW approval if you’re developing or participating in the development of a project that can have a positive impact or be innovative for your industry or field, not just your company.
Whether your project is open source or commercial, for-profit or non-profit, having a track record of your past work being widely adopted and impactful is a big plus. For instance, if you're a lead engineer who crafted an AI algorithm for infrastructure improvements or built an app that's widely used and offers broad economic or cultural benefits, these achievements could be the foundation for an NIW, especially if the impact is significant enough.
Just to give you an idea, we have seen a successful software engineer NIW case recently for a hydro-energy engineer working on an innovative software solution for the industry that was widely adopted.
While it might not seem obvious, individuals in creative fields may also be eligible for EB2 NIW visas. Take, for instance, a cinematographer with a track record of commercial success, working on an innovative production technique backed by preliminary funding commitments. If this has the potential for widespread adoption in the industry, the resulting economic and cultural benefits could meet EB2 NIW requirements.
Some EB2 NIW success stories include an NIW approval for an Artist in the African Art space, based on an argument that the artist’s work will enhance our country's multiculturalism, and provide our country with access to styles of art we don't currently have access to. Another instance involved an NIW approval for a fashion marketer who created a fashion line widely embraced by the industry.
At Manifest, our immigration lawyers bring experience in handling NIWs for those in creative industries. We'll help present your case in a way that the U.S. government understands.
National interest waiver requirements for lawyers, accountants, and nonprofits are a bit tricky and a little hard to standardize, but they follow the same NIW requirements we saw earlier: 1) the project must have substantial impact on the national interest, and 2) you must be well-qualified to deliver on you project.
Let’s take a look at some NIW cases that could get approved:
An accountant who was an expert in U.S. and Israeli accounting systems, which was crucial for international trade between the two countries.
A lawyer in international securities transactions whose transactional legal work for his employer (one of the largest law firms in the world), demonstrated exceptional ability in international transactions, which benefited the United States.
A lawyer practicing environmental law at a non-profit who has demonstrated through their prior career that their presence would benefit the U.S. and that they are exceptional in their field. Their prior publications, public speaking, and transactional legal work were used as evidence in this case.
The EB2 NIW visa approval rate is around 80% on average. The approval rate can vary each year, depending on the number of applications received – although there has been a recent downturn in approvals.
Getting your EB2 NIW case approved is all about having a strong visa package. Here at Manifest, we're committed to your success and know how to increase your EB2 NIW approval rate, and we're so sure about it that we offer a visa-approved or money-back guarantee (terms apply).
"EB2 NIW visa approval rate is around 80% on average"
USCIS data for EB2 NIW visa
EB2 NIW cases are currently eligible for Premium Processing. For an additional USCIS filing fee of $2,500 (set to increase to $2,850 soon!), you will receive a decision on the petition (I-140 only) in 45 days. A decision could be an approval, a denial, or a request for additional evidence.
The process of EB2 NIW has two key steps:
Immigrant Visa Petition approval (Form I-140)
Obtaining permanent residence (a “green card” - via adjustment of status if you’re in the US or consular processing if you’re outside of the US.
Step 1: Petition approval by USCIS
Your petition is filed on form I-140 and is the first step for an EB2 NIW visa.
You can download the form directly here:
Or see an example of form I-140 below:
Form I-140 processing time can take anywhere from 10 to 26.5 months, depending on the service center where it is filed. Applications may be sent to different USCIS service centers based on type and location.
After you receive a notice of approval, you will then need to check the U.S. Department of State’s Visa Bulletin to see whether a green card is available. You can see the most recent visa bulletin here.
In some cases, depending on the visa bulletin, the I-140 petition and green card applications could be filed at the same time.
Step 2: Adjustment of Status (“Green Card” application)
If applying from INSIDE the United States, you will need to submit Form I-485 for adjustment of status.
You can download the form directly here:
Or see an example of form I-485 below:
Form I-485 can sometimes take more than 2 years for USCIS to process the application. I-485 wait times vary depending on the service center where it is filed. If you are applying from abroad (via consular processing), you will likely wait at least another 6 months.
For the latest estimates on processing times, check out the USCIS processing times tool. If you’ve already submitted and wish to track the status of your case, you can do so on the USCIS website.
Finally, let’s talk money. There are two kinds of EB2 NIW fees:
EB2 NIW lawyer fees
Government fees and other costs
EB2 NIW lawyer fee
Lawyer fees for EB2 NIW can vary significantly depending on what lawyer you use. If you’re looking for a more individualized approach, we recommend going with a smaller law firm that specializes in EB2 Visas (like us!).
Here at Manifest Law, our EB2 NIW lawyer fee start at $7,975 and come with our money-back guarantee (terms apply).
EB2 Processing Fees
Below is a summary of the current filing fees for the EB2 visa with USCIS.
Form I-140
(“Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker”):
Form I-485
(the adjustment of status application):
Filing Fee: $700 (this fee is paid by the employer)
Filing Fee: $1140
Biometrics Fee: $85 (required for applicants aged 14 to 79)
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Form I-140
(“Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker”):
Form DS-260
(immigrant visa application):
Form I-864
(“Affidavit of Support”):
Biometrics Fee:
Filing Fee: $700 (this fee is paid by the employer sponsoring you)
Filing Fee: $345
Filing Fee: $120
Fee: $85 (required for applicants aged 14 to 79)
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Do I need to hire an EB2 visa lawyer?
You don't have to have a lawyer for an EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition, but many people find it critical for their EB2 NIW success.
Hiring an immigration attorney is useful because they know the ins and outs of the process, help gather the right documents, and create a strategy for your case. They can handle challenges, correspond with immigration authorities on your behalf, and make sure you meet all the EB2 NIW requirements. While it's not a must, having a lawyer often makes the EB-2 NIW application much smoother and increases your chances of success!
If you choose to hire Manifest Law, we provide flexible payment plans of up to 6 months, a visa-approved or money-back guarantee (terms apply), and immigration lawyers with experience in EB2 visas.
Is EB-2 NIW hard to get?
How many times can I apply for EB2 NIW?
How many people are waiting for an EB2 green card?
What is the success rate of EB-2 NIW?
Do you need a job offer for NIW?
Is there premium processing for EB2 NIW?
In this EB2 NIW visa guide:
