CASE: I-485 / National Interest Waiver
CLIENT: Korean
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA
Our client contacted us about the possibility of doing a National Interest Waiver self-petition. He is a researcher from South Korea and he is an exceptional scientist in the field of Biomedical Engineering.
Our client’s significant contributions have placed him at the pinnacle of his field. His field of research primarily concerns biomedical materials design and development, and its in-depth characteristics. He has been working lately on other subjects including bio-inspired materials design (so-called bio-mimetics). Throughout his career, our client has made important contributions to the field of biomedical engineering and his research involves the study of structural biological materials (bone) and the development of bioinspired designs based on these structures (biodegradable metal / ceramic composite scaffold, 3D printing), which so far has resulted in scaffolds and composites that have diverse applications from bone implants to light weight aerospace structures. Because of his innovative research, our client’s publications were highly evaluated by reviewers of various journals and by colleagues and experts in the field.
Upon review of his credentials and qualifications, our office determined that he was qualified for the National Interest Waiver (NIW) category. Being qualified for NIW is beneficial since you would not need an employer nor family member to petition for you for green card purposes. You’d be eligible for a self-petition and unless you are from China or India, in which case you’d still have to wait for priority dates to be current, you would be eligible to apply for adjustment of status (green card) immediately without any lag in priority dates.
As a primer, NIW applicants must have a master’s or higher degree. While we prepared his case, the AAO set the new standards for NIW cases in Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016). Under the new standard, the petitioner must demonstrate that the foreign national’s proposed endeavor has both substantial merit and national importance. Next, it must be shown that he or she is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor. Finally, the petitioner seeking the waiver needs to demonstrate that, on balance, it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the job offer and labor certification requirements. Id.
Our office prepared a 21-page brief for our client’s NIW filing. Our client also obtained 6 letters of recommendation from his colleagues and internationally-recognized researchers. Our office also included his publication records, presentation records, and conference materials in the NIW application. We demonstrated that our client is one of the few elite researchers who have made significant and substantial contributions to his field of endeavor, that he is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor, and it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the requirements of a job offer and thus of a labor certification for our client.
Our office filed his I-140(NIW) petition to the USCIS Nebraska Service Center on February 7, 2019. On November 26, 2019, the USCIS Nebraska Service Center issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) for our client and surprisingly argued that our client has not met all of three prongs of Dhanasar. Our client and our office prepared an extensive RFE response and filed it on February 18, 2020.
Eventually, on March 25, 2020, the USCIS approved his I-140 petition. When we filed his I-140, he concurrently filed his I-485 adjustment of status application as well. On August 11, 2020, the USCIS approved our client’s I-485 adjustment of status application without an interview.