The benefits of EB-2 NIW

For those of you who are looking at employment-based visa options, the national interest waiver can be your fast-track to a green card. Here’s a post by Amber G. Davis, Principal at Waypoint Immigration USA, on three amazing benefits:

NIW is slept on.

Here are 3 amazing benefits you get with NIW:

1. Freedom from your employer.

I've had clients have to give up dream job offers because they were stuck in a PERM process.

I've had clients delay joining their dream FAANG employer because they were stuck in a PERM process.

If career flexibility is a top priority for you, look into NIW as soon as you can because with it, you can switch employers freely (while on H-1B).

2. A faster path to a green card.

If you're ROW (rest of world) and not an Indian or Chinese national, it might be a 1-3 year wait (not 4-10+, or yikes, 90+ years).

Even for Chinese nationals, EB-2 is still a valid way to a faster green card (the backlog is 4-5 years).

3. A priority date.

PERM can be a painful way right now to get a priority date.

With NIW, regardless of where you're from, you can get a priority date.
This absolutely helps if you're ROW.

This definitely helps if you're a Chinese national.

Helps too if you're an Indian national, especially if we see a sudden advancement in priority dates in the future (as we saw in 2020). This might be a pipe dream in the near term, but looking 5+ years out, this is a definitely possibility as the laws change and world circumstances evolve.

Bonus benefit: building your NIW profile also helps your career in the long run.