United States · Federal (United States)
Skilled Worker
EB-2 National Interest Waiver
For advanced-degree or exceptional-ability professionals whose work has substantial merit and national importance, waiving the usual job offer and labor certification requirements.
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Use AtlasCarta’s deterministic assessment to see whether your saved facts meet this pathway’s published requirements.
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Pathway overview
For advanced-degree or exceptional-ability professionals whose work has substantial merit and national importance, waiving the usual job offer and labor certification requirements.
Verified directly from the USCIS Policy Manual (Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 5, updated 15 January 2025): you must first qualify for the underlying EB-2 category — an advanced degree, or exceptional ability in your field. The National Interest Waiver then lets you self-petition, waiving the usual job offer and labor certification requirements, if you meet Matter of Dhanasar's three-prong test: your proposed endeavor has substantial merit and national importance; you're well-positioned to advance it (based on your record — publications, patents, employment history, expert letters); and, on balance, it's beneficial to the United States to waive the job offer and labor certification requirements. This is a genuinely holistic officer-judgment test this tool collapses into one self-declared fact rather than fabricating a numeric score.
Eligibility requirements
- Intended applicant
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Job offer
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Age
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Language
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Experience
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
Costs and financial requirements
- Main financial requirement
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Government fee
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
Application process
Form I-140 petition, typically self-petitioned (no employer sponsor or labor certification required)
Status, validity and rights
- Current status
- Open
- Initial validity
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Renewal
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Work rights
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Study rights
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
Family inclusion
Not yet confirmed in structured format
Permanent residence and citizenship
Permanent residence
Not yet confirmed in structured format
Citizenship
Not yet confirmed in structured format
Eligibility to apply for permanent residence or citizenship never guarantees approval.
Required documents
An official pathway-specific document checklist has not yet been confirmed in structured format.
Official sources and verification
No reviewer-confirmed official source is available for public display yet.
- Last published
- 2026-08-20
- Last source verification
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Effective from
- Not yet confirmed in structured format
- Effective to
- No end date published
Research, not application advice
AtlasCarta explains published immigration requirements for research and comparison. It does not provide immigration advice or predict an application outcome.
Verification badges show whether a person checked the published rule set against its cited official source.