EB-2 NIW's three prongs, without the legal density

EB-2 normally requires a job offer and labor certification (PERM). The National Interest Waiver lets you skip both and self-petition, if you can show your work meets the three-prong framework from Matter of Dhanasar (2016): 1. Substantial merit and national importance — the proposed endeavor has real merit and national importance, judged on its own terms, not by how impressive you personally are 2. Well positioned to advance it — your education, track record, specific plan, and any evidence of interest or progress from others in the field show you're positioned to actually carry the endeavor forward 3. Beneficial to waive the requirements — on balance, the US benefits from waiving the job offer and labor certification, even accepting that other qualified US workers might exist The framing difference from EB-1A is worth sitting with: EB-1A asks whether you meet a fixed evidentiary bar for extraordinary ability. NIW asks whether a specific, forward-looking endeavor you're proposing merits a waiver — it's not purely a referendum on your past track record, though your track record is what makes prong two credible. NIW generally has a lower evidentiary bar than EB-1A, but it requires something EB-1A doesn't: a clearly articulated, specific plan for what you're going to do, not just evidence of what you've already done.