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Universities & Sciences
The other area that NIW applications must address is the question of why the applicant should not be required to get a labor certification. Seven points that are relevant:
The first point is how the benefits of your work are national in scope, and do not harm one part of the country to benefit another. Examples include improving infrastructure; improving health care or the environment (such as by performing medical research and showing that the research is being used or built on widely); making technological advances that are or will be enjoyed by the nation as a whole (such as by researchers across the country using or building on your work); or working on a U.S. government project.
The second point is how the field in which you work is of substantial intrinsic merit. Most professions will meet this test by simply describing in plain English how their profession makes people's lives better.
The third point that must be addressed is how you are qualified for your position.
Fourth, you need to demonstrate how the national interest would be adversely affected if a labor certification were required. Specifically, you need to show that it would be contrary to the national interest to deprive your employer of your services in order to give the job to a minimally qualified U.S. worker. This is usually accomplished by arguing that you will serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would an available U.S. worker having the same minimum qualifications. The best way to show this is to talk about how the project on which you are working would be disrupted if you left. Could the project stand to lose you as a result of the amount of time it would take to get a replacement up to speed (such as where a researcher is lost and a replacement would have to learn and possibly continue cutting edge research)? Do you possess proprietary knowledge that you use on the project that no one (or no else who would be interested in the job, such as fellow project members) has, such that you really cannot be replaced? Is grant money or a government contract tied to your personal involvement? Do you have unique, hard to quantify characteristics that make you especially invaluable?
Fifth, you must establish that a national interest waiver is not being pursued based solely on a shortage of qualified workers in your field, since a labor certification would succeed in such a case. This will generally be covered by the parts of the letter talking about your level of achievement and the disruption threatened by your departure. Alternatively, you could show that minimally qualified U.S. workers have held the position and failed because they lacked something that you have.
Sixth, if you hold a patent or are responsible for some innovation, your letters of support should talk about it and how it has benefited your project.
Seventh, and most importantly, your letters need to demonstrate that you have a past record of specific prior achievement that justifies projections of future benefit to the national interest. Specifically, you must show that you have the ability to serve the national interest to a substantially greater extent than the majority of your colleagues. You should also demonstrate your influence on your particular field of employment as a whole.
