A National Interest Waiver, or NIW, is an employment based second preference
petition. A person qualifies for this benefit if he/she falls within the second preference employment based category,
namely a person in the professions who either holds an advanced degree or is considered possessing exceptional ability in
the sciences, business or arts. Normally, these applicants are subject to the labor certification requirement.
However, an exception exists if their employment is in the "national interest". Thus, a beneficiary of a successful
NIW is exempt from the requirement that his or her employer first obtain an individual labor certification from the Department
of Labor.
