National Interest Waiver (NIW) EB-2

Prong III. Balancing Factors to Determine Waiver’s Benefit to the United States

The evidence submitted must support the petitioner’s statement that, on balance, it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the requirements of a job offer, and thus of a labor certification.

You must submit evidence to establish that, on balance, it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the requirements of a job offer and thus of a labor certification.

This balance was described in Dhanasar as on one hand protecting the domestic labor supply through the creation of the labor certification process, while on the other hand recognizing that in certain cases the benefits inherent in the labor certification process can be outweighed by other factors that are also deemed to be in the national interest.

USCIS may evaluate factors including, but not limited to, the following:

• Whether, in light of the nature of the petitioner’s qualifications or proposed endeavor, it would be impractical either for the petitioner to secure a job offer or for the petitioner to obtain a labor certification;
• Whether, even assuming that other qualified U.S. workers are available, the United States would still benefit from the petitioner’s contributions;
• Whether the national interest in the petitioner’s contributions is sufficiently urgent to warrant forgoing the labor certification process;
• Whether the petitioner’s endeavor may lead to the potential creation of jobs; and
• Whether the petitioner is self-employed in a manner that generally does not adversely affect U.S. workers.