CASE: I-140 / National Interest Waiver
CLIENT: Korean
LOCATION: Stanford, California
Our client contacted us in December 2012 about the possibility of doing a National Interest Waiver application. He is a post-doctorate researcher and scientist in the field of Aerospace Engineering and Science, and is currently working as a post-doctorate researcher in an academic institution in Stanford, California.
Our client is an extraordinary researcher and engineer in the field of Aerospace Engineering Research; specifically, new aerospace propulsion technology such as SCRAM-JET, supersonic flow control, and plasma physics.
His significant contributions have placed him at the pinnacle of the field of Aerospace engineering. Our client’s expertise is in the fields of plasma aided flow control, supersonic/hypersonic compressible flow and plasma assisted combustion. Throughout his research career, our client has provided innovative solutions for practical plasma flow control applications in supersonic and subsonic flows which were highly evaluated by various journal reviews 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 the NIW is beneficial since you would not need an employer nor family member to petition 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. The landmark immigration case that discusses the standards for NIWs is Matter of New York State Department of Transportation, 22 I&N Dec. 215 (Comm.1998). This case held that the qualifying applicant must show the following elements in his or her I-140 NIW petition: First, it must be shown that the alien seeks employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit. Next, it must be shown that the proposed benefit will be national in scope. Finally, the petitioner seeking the waiver must establish that the alien will serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would an available U. S. worker having the same minimum qualifications.
Our office prepared a 19-page brief for our client’s NIW filing. Our client also obtained 7 letters of recommendation from his colleagues and internationally-recognized scientists. Our office also included his publication records, presentation records, and conference materials in the NIW application. We demonstrated the intrinsic merit of our client’s research in the United States, the national scope of his research, and asserted that our client would serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would an available U.S. worker having the same minimum qualifications. His NIW application contained 41 exhibits.
Our office filed his I-140(NIW) petition at the USCIS Nebraska Service Center on July 18, 2013. Eventually, on October 24, 2013, the USCIS Nebraska Service Center approved our client’s I-140 petition.