EB-2 NIW
NIW stands for national interest waiver. It is not a separate visa. It is EB-2, the second employment-based preference, with the job offer and the labor certification waived because your work is worth more to the country than the labor market test. Everything turns on how clearly you can say what you are going to do.
For the person with an advanced degree and a specific plan, and no employer willing or able to sponsor it.
It is the most misexplained category in immigration, and the misexplanation costs people either a wasted filing or a year of not filing when they should have.
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The questionnaire is general information, not legal advice, and completing it does not make you a client.
You file it yourself
No employer, no job offer, no labor certification.
EB-2 first
An advanced degree, or a bachelor's plus five years of progressive experience, or exceptional ability.
Three prongs, all three
From Matter of Dhanasar. Not weighted, and a strong one cannot carry a missing one.
A green card, not a visa
An approved I-140 gives you a place in line. The Visa Bulletin says when it is reached.
Two of these are the reasons people arrive here angry. The other two are the reasons people arrive here late.
Citations are evidence. They are not the standard. The word publication does not appear anywhere in the NIW test, and I have read strong NIW records with very few papers and weak ones with a great many.
That is the other failure, and the more expensive one. A petition assembled from the resume you already had, with an endeavor written afterward to fit it, is the exact shape that draws a Request for Evidence on the first prong.
NIW often fits applied work better than the academic framing suggests. What it needs from you is a plan with a real user at the end of it, not a longer publication list.
In this category that is not a weakness. It is the situation the waiver exists for. The question is whether skipping the labor market test is worth it in your case, and that question has its own prong.
“Citations are evidence. They are not the standard.”
The test
The test has a gate and then three prongs. Almost every bad NIW conversation skips the gate and misreads the first prong.
A 2016 administrative decision replaced the old framework and still governs. All three have to hold. They are not weighted, and a strong showing on one does not carry a missing one.
All3
your endeavor has substantial merit and national importance
you are well positioned to advance it
on balance, it is worth waiving the job offer and the labor certification
Nothing here is scored: each prong is argued on its own, and the endeavor is what all three attach to.
The waiver sits inside EB-2, so the threshold comes first: a U.S. advanced degree or its foreign equivalent, or a bachelor's degree plus five years of progressive experience in the specialty, or exceptional ability in the sciences, arts or business, meaning expertise significantly above what is ordinarily encountered. This is the gate an NIW conversation skips first, and it is the cheapest thing on this page to check.
The first prong is about your endeavor, not your field. It is not enough that artificial intelligence matters or that public health matters. Dhanasar asks about the specific thing you propose to do and what happens if it goes well, at a scale that reaches past your own employer or lab. An endeavor written at the level of a job title gives an officer nothing to weigh. The second prong is about you, and not only your credentials: education and a record count, and so do a plan, progress already made, and whether anyone with something at stake has shown interest. Dhanasar is explicit that you do not have to show the endeavor will succeed, only that you are positioned to advance it.
It asks why the United States should skip the labor market test in your case. The usual arguments are that finding a sponsoring employer is impractical given how you work, that the benefit of your endeavor outweighs what the labor certification protects, and that there is urgency to it. It is discretionary. A petition that argues one and two beautifully and treats three as a formality is incomplete.
Every NIW engagement includes the same core work, quoted as one flat fee, and it starts with the endeavor rather than with the exhibits. Here is what you get.
You also get a complete copy of everything filed, every receipt notice as it arrives, and case status you can check in your client portal.
EB-2 NIW
Always quoted in three separate lines: the attorney fee, government filing fees, and other costs. Never one all-in number.
$10,000 to $12,000
I-140 petition fee: $715
Asylum Program Fee, at the rate a self-petitioner pays: $300
Premium processing on Form I-907, only if you choose it: $2,965
Certified translations
Credential evaluation
Courier and shipping
Government fees verified: 2026-07-05
These are the firm's standard flat fees for a typical matter of this type, not an offer and not a quote for yours. Your fee is fixed in a written engagement agreement after I have looked at your facts.
The honest part
If you were declined somewhere else, or told yes a little too quickly, these two will tell you which one happened.
If I had to name one thing, it is this. A vague endeavor cannot be weighed, so prongs two and three have nothing to attach to. Writing it well takes real time from you, because it has to be your plan, in enough detail that a stranger can picture what you would be doing next year.
An officer can agree that your field matters and still deny the first prong, because the question is the prospective impact of your endeavor at a scale beyond your own employer. Cancer research is important. What is being asked is what your particular work would change, and for whom.
If you recognized your own case in either of those, a written second opinion is the cheapest way to settle it.
| Compare on | EB-2 NIW Green card, employment second preference | EB-1A Green card, employment first preference |
|---|---|---|
| Who files the petition | You do. It is a self-petition inside EB-2. | You do. It is a self-petition. |
| Employer, job offer, labor certification | None. The job offer and the labor certification are waived. | None. No job offer and no labor certification. |
| What the test is | EB-2 eligibility first, then the three prongs from Matter of Dhanasar. | One major internationally recognized award, or three of ten criteria, then a final merits determination. |
| What the record has to show | A proposed endeavor with substantial merit and national importance, and that you are positioned to advance it. | The same standing, read more strictly, plus intent to keep working in the field and prospective benefit to the United States. |
| Where these cases actually turn | The proposed endeavor. A vague one cannot be weighed. | How the field is defined, and whether the acclaim is current. |
| Typical timeline | Premium processing is available on the same I-140, but the waiver classification runs 45 business days, three times the EB-1A window. The same visa number queue follows it. | Premium processing is available on the I-140 at 15 business days to act. Approval is not the finish: an immigrant visa number still has to be available, and that queue is published monthly in the Visa Bulletin. |
EB-2 NIW
Green card, employment second preference
Green card, employment first preference
The washed column marks the page you are on rather than a recommendation, and the difference that matters most is what each category asks you to prove.
Each row is the general rule for that category. It is not a conclusion about your case.
The clock
There are two clocks, and the one people ask about is the smaller one. Here is what both are made of and where the current numbers are published.
An NIW is filed on Form I-140, and USCIS publishes processing times at egov.uscis.gov by form and service center. Read that figure as a description of cases already decided, not a date for yours.
Form I-907 is available on this petition. It buys a commitment from USCIS to act within a fixed number of days, published on its own page, and acting means an approval, a denial, a Request for Evidence or a notice of intent to deny. It does not make approval more likely and it does not repair an argument that is not there yet. It earns its cost when a status is running out, and nothing when the endeavor still needs a month of documenting.
An approved I-140 gives you a priority date, your place in line, not a green card. The State Department publishes a Visa Bulletin every month at travel.state.gov showing how far the EB-2 line has moved, and separately for the countries of birth with the most demand. For some countries of birth EB-2 is where almost all of the waiting is, and it is outside anyone's control, mine included. If that applies to you, it is worth knowing before you choose a category.
When the priority date is current, the green card comes through adjustment of status inside the United States or consular processing abroad, each with its own queue. The State Department publishes consular appointment wait times by post at travel.state.gov. Which route fits has travel and work-authorization consequences, so decide it deliberately rather than by default.
Each of those pages belongs to the agency that controls that step, and each shows the date it was last updated.
The sequence
Here is the order of a case in this category: who acts at each step, and whose clock is running. Two of those clocks are different animals, and telling them apart is most of what people are really asking. A period fixed by regulation is the same this year and next. A backlog is a fact about a queue on one particular day, so this page does not print one. It hands you the agency page where the current figure lives.
You
You and your attorney build the record: the evidence, the letters, the exhibits, the petition itself.
This is the one stretch on the list that no agency measures. It moves with what already exists and what still has to be created.
USCIS
USCIS decides the immigrant petition.
Same tool, same caution: what USCIS publishes describes cases it has already finished, and it is posted per form, per classification and per office.
Premium processing is a paid USCIS service available on this form. For I-140 in this classification, USCIS states a period of 45 business days.
That period stops and starts over from the beginning if USCIS issues a request for evidence, so it buys a faster look at the file rather than a shorter case.
Eligibility is set per form and per classification, and USCIS can change it.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov
Department of State
A visa number has to become available for your preference category and your country of birth.
Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are not in a preference category, so this step does not apply to them. Where it does apply, nobody can shorten it, and for some countries it is the longest step by a distance. The Department of State publishes a bulletin every month.
The visa bulletinCheck the current figure at travel.state.gov
USCIS
The last step happens in one of two places: adjustment of status with USCIS inside the United States, or an immigrant visa interview at a consulate abroad.
Which one applies depends on where you are and what status you hold, not on preference.
USCIS processing timesCheck the current figure at egov.uscis.gov
Every stage, form number and period below comes from the agency that owns that step. None of it is this firm's estimate, and none of it is a prediction about your case.
Sources last checked August 16, 2026.
The links go to live government pages, so what you find there will be newer than that.
The questions that get saved for last. None of them should cost you a consultation to find out.
An NIW is a self-petition. You are the petitioner, no job offer is required, there is no employer signature on the form, and nothing in the filing asks a current employer to agree or to know. That is what the petition requires and nothing more. Your own facts, and what you say to people, are yours to manage. On my end, what you tell me while you decide whether to hire me stays confidential either way, nobody is contacted, and nothing is verified with anyone unless you ask.
Nothing in the law limits a person to one immigrant petition. An employer-sponsored case can be in progress and you can file an NIW on your own record beside it; the two do not cancel each other out. Whether the second filing is worth its cost depends on where the employer case already is and on what your record looks like, which is an analysis rather than a rule of thumb. What is worth knowing generally is that an employer-sponsored case belongs to the employer in a way an NIW does not.
A spouse and unmarried children under twenty-one come through the same petition as derivatives at the green card stage, on their own adjustment applications inside the United States or through consular processing abroad. They do not file their own I-140. Their status in the meantime depends on the status they hold now, and that has to be planned rather than assumed. If your household runs on two incomes, work authorization in the meantime belongs in the decision at the start.
EB-1A, if the recognition is already there
EB-1A asks a backward-looking question: has your field already treated you as being at the top of it. NIW asks a forward-looking one. Some records answer both, and where that is true it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.
O-1, if you need status while the endeavor develops
NIW takes time that does not belong to anyone in this conversation, and an O-1 is a way to be here and working while it runs. It needs a U.S. employer or agent to file it, which is the trade.
A written read before you commit
The Case Blueprint is a written evaluation of your record and your options, including the categories I would rule out and why. If you were declined somewhere else, it is also the fastest way to find out which part of the record was actually the problem.
The approval turned on the waiver argument
A researcher petitioning without an employer. Most petitions treat the waiver itself as a closing formality. This one did not, and that is where it was decided.
National interest waiver, approved
Client-identifying detail has been removed.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence, and the law in effect when it is decided.
A rejected filing is not a decided case
The first filing never reached an officer. It came back at the mailroom. Rejection and denial are not the same word, and the difference is worth knowing before it happens to you.
Rejected at intake, rebuilt and refiled
Client-identifying detail has been removed.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence, and the law in effect when it is decided.
The Request for Evidence asked what the petition never answered
She filed a thorough petition without a lawyer, and USCIS came back questioning all three parts of the legal test and her eligibility underneath them. The answer was not more paper. It was a plan stated specifically enough for an officer to check. The petition was approved.
Self-filed petition, Request for Evidence answered, approved
Client-identifying detail has been removed.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts, its own evidence, and the law in effect when it is decided.
Do you need publications for an NIW?
The word publication does not appear in the national interest waiver standard. Here is what the standard actually asks for, and where effort gets wasted.
Not what you have published. What you are trying to build, who it would serve, and how far along it is. That conversation is where an NIW either has an argument or does not, and it is a much better use of the time than reading a resume out loud.
The first is a free intake with my team. The second is the paid consultation, and that one is with me.
15 minutes · Free
My paralegal team, not me
A short conversation to hear what is going on and get it written down properly. My paralegals ask about your status, your dates, your employer if there is one, and what you have already tried. By the end of it you know what a consultation with me would cover and whether it is worth booking one yet.
This step is intake and scheduling. My paralegals do not give legal advice, do not tell you whether you qualify for anything, and do not recommend a visa category. That part is mine, and it happens in the attorney consultation.
60 minutes · $150
If you go on to retain the firm for the matter the consultation covered, the fee is credited toward your fee for that case. The credit does not expire.
Joe Kwon, the attorney who would handle the case
This is where the legal discussion happens. You tell me what you have and what you are trying to do, and I tell you what I think, including when I think the answer is no. Some of these end with me not taking the case. That is a real result of the call, not a failure of it. I read what you send before we sit down, so the whole session goes to your question. The consultation runs as a video call, from wherever you are.
Booking does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Immigration benefits are decided by government officers who apply the law to the record in front of them, and many of them are discretionary. No attorney can promise you an approval, and anyone who does is telling you what you want to hear. What good lawyering controls is whether your case is complete, specific, and internally consistent, so that approving it is the officer's easiest path.
