This category is for individuals with extraordinary abilities in their field, outstanding professors or researchers, and multinational executives or managers.

Multinational Executives and Managers: We will demonstrate that you have been employed outside the United States for at least 1 year during the 3 years before filing your petition or your most recent U.S. entry. Your U.S. petitioning employer must be operating for at least one year, and maintain a qualifying relationship with your foreign employer, to sponsor you for this managerial or executive position inside the U.S.  

Persons of Extraordinary Ability: We will prove to USCIS your extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, that you have sustained with national or international recognition and acclaim.

Outstanding Professors and Researchers: We will establish your international recognition for outstanding achievements in a specific academic field. At least 3 years experience in teaching or research in that particular academic field is required. Also, you must be seeking to pursue tenure or tenure track teaching or a comparable research position at a university, institution of higher education, or private employer inside the United States.

Reserved for individuals with advanced degrees or exceptional abilities in their profession.

Advanced Degree Professionals: The U.S. job offered must require for hire, at least, a U.S. post-baccalaureate graduate degree or higher education (or foreign education equivalency) to qualify. The employee must possess this advanced degree or its foreign equivalent (a baccalaureate or foreign equivalent degree plus 5 years of post-baccalaureate, progressive work experience in the field also qualifies).

Persons of Exceptional Ability: We will establish your “exceptional ability” in the sciences, arts, or business. “Exceptional ability” is defined as “a degree of expertise significantly above that ordinarily encountered” in the industry. This definition is a less rigorous standard to meet, when compared to the EB-1 “extraordinary ability” standard.

Designed for professionals with bachelor's degrees, skilled workers with at least two years of training, and unskilled workers.

Professional Workers: The U.S. job offered must require at least a specific baccalaureate degree for hire, based upon industry standards. The employee must hold that specific or related baccalaureate degree. As an alternative, a foreign education and/or work experience equivalency may satisfy this requirement.

Skilled Workers: The U.S. job offered must require at least two years of relevant work experience, based upon industry standards. The employee must provide proof of such relevant work experience. Equivalent work experience, education, and/or training may also satisfy this requirement.

Unskilled Workers: Also referred to as “Other Workers,” these employees must be seeking to fill a U.S. job that requires less than 2 years of training and/or experience.

The National Interest Waiver (NIW) is available to foreign nationals of exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business, and advanced degreed professionals, including Ph.D. students. NIW allows foreign nationals to avoid the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process when the U.S. Attorney General determines that services the foreign national will provide to the U.S. outweigh the need to conduct the PERM process. Successful NIW cases prove:

1. the foreign national will pursue their career in an "area of substantial intrinsic merit” and “national importance” benefitting the U.S.;
2. the foreign national is well-qualified to advance the proposed endeavor; and
3. on balance, the benefit to the United States outweighs the need to conduct the PERM process.