What is the National Interest Waiver (NIW)?
FAQ.
Answered by Diane Rish, Deputy Director of the International Student Resource Center
Last updated: April 2025
What is the National Interest Waiver (NIW)?
The NIW is a category of U.S. permanent resident application. The NIW lets USCIS waive the job-offer requirement (and with it the labor certification and employer sponsorship) for an EB-2 advanced-degree professional or person of exceptional ability — so you can self-petition on Form I-140. You must still qualify for EB-2; the waiver only removes the job offer.
How do I qualify for an NIW?
The National Interest Waiver is part of the EB-2 (second-preference) green card. Normally EB-2 requires a U.S. employer to sponsor you and complete the Department of Labor’s labor-certification process. The NIW waives that job offer because it is in the national interest to do so. It does not waive the underlying requirement that you are a professional with an advanced degree or a person of exceptional ability. You apply for the waiver as part of a Form I-140, and you can file it yourself.
USCIS evaluates three sets of factors (“prongs”), established in the binding legal decision - “Matter of Dhanasar (26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016))”:
Whether your proposed work and goals in the U.S. have substantial merit and national importance.
Whether you are well positioned to advance those goals.
Whether, on balance, it benefits the U.S. to waive the job offer and labor certification.
For the first prong, you must show more than a general worker shortage, the importance of your field, or that you work for an employer with a national footprint. You must show the specific implications of your work — for example, a new manufacturing process or a public-health benefit. For the second prong, your education, skills, knowledge, and record of success matter; reference letters help most when they cite specific examples backed by evidence such as patents that have drawn interest or well-cited articles. For the third prong, it helps to show that a labor certification would be impractical (for instance, because you will be self-employed or have unique skills), that there are benefits even if U.S. workers are available, or that the benefit is urgent.