Hello everybody. In this video, I'm going to talk about an exciting process that allows an
individual to apply for a green card without an employer sponsor. This is an amazing opportunity.
This is the EB2 national interest waiver. In this video, I'm going to talk about how
long does it take, what is it all about, and how you can as well apply for a green card
without an employer. So, what are you waiting for? See you on the other side.
Hello, everybody and welcome back to our Immigration channel. This is a place we get
the most up-to-date immigration news, immigration updates, and everything else that you need to
make your immigration journey less stressful. My name is Jacob Sapochnick, and I'm an immigration
attorney located in San Diego, California, and I help entrepreneurs, high achievers and
business people from all over the world get their permanent residency every single day.
In this video, we're going to talk about a very exciting visa option, the national interest waiver
under the EB2 category, which allows an individual to apply for a green card without investment
and without a job offer. This is an opportunity that's been available to professionals
since 2016. Since the Dhanasa case came about this case changed the EB2 national interest
waiver category and made it more accessible to professionals. The EB2 categories are available
to professionals with advanced degrees or the equivalent or for those with exceptional ability
in the sciences, art, medicine or athletics, which opens the door to many, many, many more
applicants to be able to qualify for this amazing opportunity. So what is an EB2 under the national
interest waiver? The regular EB2 category for a green card requires a job offer from a US company.
They have to go through the labor certification, file your case with the Labor Department,
get the wage request, prove that there are no US workers that are being affected by this hiring.
Then they filed this petition with the USCIS, the immigration service. With the national interest
waiver, we bypass, we waive the requirement for labor certification. We filed the petition
directly with US immigration. Waiver saves you over a year from the process because the labor
certification itself is a lengthy process and is complicated. And the most important thing,
it's really, really a lengthy process. With the national interest waiver,
We bypass this thing altogether. The best thing about the EB2 and the national interest waiver,
that in addition to waiving that labor certification requirement,
you can sponsor yourself, you can self-petition for this application
without a job offer, which is the beautiful and unique thing about this application. In order
to qualify for the EB 2 under this category, you must meet the standards. And we'll talk about the
standards in a few minutes. So as I mentioned before, you need to have an advanced degree,
at least a Master's or higher or the equivalent of that degree, five years of experience, or
exceptional ability. In addition to that, you have to demonstrate the following points. Number one,
your proposed endeavor is of substantial merit in national importance. The second category is
that the foreign national is well-positioned to advance this endeavor. So that means that you
have the experience, we have to show that you have the qualifications, that you are able to actually
pull this off. And it's not just a dream. Number three, on balance, it will be beneficial for the
United States to waive the job offer and the labor certification as required for the EB2 category.
So essentially, there's discretion here for the US government to decide if you qualify for this
case. And that's so important because they do have the power to approve those cases right now.
What is the current processing time for national interest waivers? Obviously, since the past year
and a half, things have slowed down with USCIS and also impacted these EB2 cases, as well. There are
currently two USCIS service centers that handle these I-140 petitions that are filed as part
of the national interest waiver Nebraska Service Center and the Texas Service Center. So currently,
the Nebraska center is reporting processing for national interest waivers of about eight and a
half months, which is not too bad. Remember, for the moment there is no premium processing for EB2
national interest waiver. So currently, it's about eight months for I-140 at the Nebraska service
center as opposed to the Texas service center; the current processing time is about 12-13 months
for I-140 cases. It's not too bad because last year, it was closer to 16 months for Texas
and 14 months to Nebraska we definitely see a nice little drop in processing times and hopefully,
it will continue to evolve as we move on through the year. Remember, you're now able to file
for premium processing with a national interest waiver. However, if your priority date is current,
if you're not from China or India, the EB2 category is now current, under the visa bulletin
for the rest of the world. So, the visa bulletin controls the visa availability of the different
visa categories. So, every month, you can check and see if your category is current,
for the moment, EB 2 is current for the rest of the world and is going to remain current for the
rest of the fiscal year, and all through 2022 based on the State Department prediction. So
if you are applying for a national interest waiver, and you're inside the United States,
you're also eligible to apply for Adjustment of Status. So you can file form I-140. And form I-45,
Adjustment of Status. And guess what, within five months, you're going to be able to apply for a
work permit. And you'll be able to stay in the United States, we're waiting for your application
with a work permit, pending your national interest waiver. So if you're here as a student,
or you're here on an H1B visa or any other visa, you can change from that to the national interest
waiver without an employer while you are here in the United States. That's one of the benefits
of applying for an EB2 because that category is often current on the visa bulletin. So as a whole,
this is a very good opportunity for many, many people that are here in the United States or
overseas, even before coming to the United States you can apply for this, we had a recent
case where we applied for an executive for a large multinational company, who is now back in Korea,
he applied for this national interest waiver because of his qualifications because of what
he's done in the past. And because of what he's likely to achieve. If he gets a green card coming
into the United States. He had some interesting ideas for future projects. While being overseas,
he was able to apply for this national interest waiver and get approved within a year and a half.
And now, he and his children are now able to go and study in the United States. And he's able to
live here for a while his children are in school, just because he qualified for this national
interest waiver without investment, without a job offer just because of his skills and what
he's likely to achieve in the United States. So if you feel that you qualify, if you want
to learn more about it, make sure you send me a text, 619-483-4549,
and we'll see if you qualify for this amazing opportunity under the EB2 national interest
waiver. If you have any questions, post them in the comments below. And let me know what other
questions you have about this EB2 category or any other categories for green cards
that do not require an employer. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in our next video.