dismissed EB-2 NIW Case: Human Resources

U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration 
Services 
In Re: 9140462 
Appeal of Texas Service Center Decision 
Non-Precedent Decision of the 
Administrative Appeals Office 
Date: SEPT. 24, 2020 
Form 1-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Advanced Degree, Exceptional Ability, National 
Interest Waiver) 
The Petitioner , a human resources manager, seeks second preference immigrant classification as a 
member of the professions holding an advanced degree , as well as a national interest waiver of the job 
offer requirement attached to this EB-2 classification. See Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) 
section 203(b)(2), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2) . 
The Director of the Texas Service Center denied the petition , concluding that the Petitioner qualified 
for classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree, but that she had not 
established that a waiver of the required job offer, and thus of the labor certification, would be in the 
national interest. 
On appeal , the Petitioner submits a brief asserting that she is eligible for a national interest waiver. 
In these proceedings , it is the petitioner's burden to establish eligibility for the immigration benefit 
sought. Section 291 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1361. Upon de novo review, we will dismiss the appeal. 
I. LAW 
To establish eligibility for a national interest waiver , a petitioner must first demonstrate qualification 
for the underlying EB-2 visa classification, as either an advanced degree professional or an individual 
of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business. Because this classification requires that the 
individual's services be sought by a U.S. employer, a separate showing is required to establish that a 
waiver of the job offer requirement is in the national interest. 
Section 203(b) of the Act sets out this sequential framework: 
(2) Aliens who are members of the professions holding advanced degrees or aliens of 
exceptional ability. -
(A) In general. - Visas shall be made available . .. to qualified immigrants who are 
members of the professions holding advanced degrees or their equivalent or 
who because of their exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business, will 
substantially benefit prospectively the national economy, cultural or 
educational interests, or welfare of the United States, and whose services in the 
sciences, arts, professions, or business are sought by an employer in the United 
States. 
(B) Waiver of job offer-
(i) National interest waiver .... [T]he Attorney General may, when the Attorney 
General deems it to be in the national interest, waive the requirements of 
subparagraph (A) that an alien's services in the sciences, arts, professions, or 
business be sought by an employer in the United States. 
While neither the statute nor the pertinent regulations define the term "national interest," we set forth 
a framework for adjudicating national interest waiver petitions in the precedent decision Matter of 
Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016). 1 Dhanasar states that after a petitioner has established 
eligibility for EB-2 classification, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may, as matter 
of discretion 2, grant a national interest waiver if the petitioner demonstrates: (1) that the foreign 
national' s proposed endeavor has both substantial merit and national importance; (2) that the foreign 
national is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor; and (3) that, on balance, it would be 
beneficial to the United States to waive the requirements of a job offer and thus of a labor certification. 
The first prong, substantial merit and national importance, focuses on the specific endeavor that the 
foreign national proposes to undertake. The endeavor's merit may be demonstrated in a range of areas 
such as business, entrepreneurialism, science, technology, culture, health, or education. In 
determining whether the proposed endeavor has national importance, we consider its potential 
prospective impact. 
The second prong shifts the focus from the proposed endeavor to the foreign national. To determine 
whether he or she is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor, we consider factors including, 
but not limited to: the individual's education, skills, knowledge and record of success in related or 
similar efforts; a model or plan for future activities; any progress towards achieving the proposed 
endeavor; and the interest of potential customers, users, investors, or other relevant entities or 
individuals. 
The third prong requires the petitioner to demonstrate that, on balance, it would be beneficial to the 
United States to waive the requirements of a job offer and thus of a labor certification. In performing 
this analysis, USCIS may evaluate factors such as: whether, in light of the nature of the foreign 
national' s qualifications or the proposed endeavor, it would be impractical either for the foreign 
national to secure a job offer or for the petitioner to obtain a labor certification; whether, even assuming 
that other qualified U.S. workers are available, the United States would still benefit from the foreign 
national's contributions; and whether the national interest in the foreign national's contributions is 
1 In announcing this new framework, we vacated our p1ior precedent decision, Matter of New York State Department of 
Transportation, 22 l&N Dec. 215 (Act. Assoc. Comm'r 1998) (NYSDOT). 
2 See also Poursina v. USCIS, No. 17-16579, 2019 WL 4051593 (Aug. 28, 2019) (finding USCIS' decision to grant or 
deny a national interest waiver to be discretionary in nature). 
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sufficiently urgent to warrant forgoing the labor certification process. In each case, the factor(s) 
considered must, taken together, indicate that on balance, it would be beneficial to the United States 
to waive the requirements of a job offer and thus of a labor certification. 3 
II. ANALYSIS 
The Director found that the Petitioner qualifies as a member of the professions holding an advanced 
degree. The remaining issue to be determined is whether the Petitioner has established that a waiver of 
the requirement of a job ofter, and thus a labor certification, would be in the national interest. For the 
reasons discussed below, we agree with the Director that the Petitioner has not sufficiently 
demonstrated the national importance of her proposed endeavor under the first prong of the Dhanasar 
analytical framework. 
Regarding her claim of eligibility under Dhanasar' s first prong, the Petitioner indicated that she intends 
to continue her career as a human resources (HR) manager. She asserted that her proposed endeavor 
involves working "with businesses in a variety of fields to plan, direct, and coordinate the administrative 
functions of their organizations." The Petitioner explained that these functions include "recruitment, 
compensation and benefits, administration, employee regulations, employee handbooks, and occupational 
health and safety. In addition, she noted that her undertaking "help[s] businesses manage employee 
performance and development, create employers and employees' satisfaction, and minimize risk 
management." The Petitioner further stated: 
I typically ... provide direct support to management on HR strategic planning actions. 
Overall, I progressively monitor projects related to people development, and elaborate 
material tailored to the organization to provide training, education, and development 
programs focused on strategic management such as corporate adaptation/integration, 
leadership mentoring, and behavioral training programs. 
Additionally, the Petitioner asserted that she plans "to prospect job opportunities in U.S. companies and 
firms." She listed 26 "companies in which I intend to pursue a job placement, as well as their current 
open positions, which perfectly match my career qualifications. "4 Furthermore, the Petitioner indicated 
that she intends to open her own company in the United States "under the namel I 
I 11 I will focus primarily on training people. . . . I want to create a company to help 
build a continuous culture of learning. . . . The trainings offered byl I will instill a new world 
view in employees .... " She also contended that the formation of her company stands to "lead to job 
creation, as I will need to hire other human resource professionals like myself to assist with the offered 
trainings and services." The Petitioner presented the January 2019 '"Articles of Organization" for 
I I identifying her as its manager. In addition, she provided a 
notification from the Internal Revenue Service's website assigning her company an Employer 
Identification Number. 
3 See Dhanasar, 26 l&N Dec. at 888-91, for elaboration on these three prongs. 
4 Included among her list of 26 prospective "Positions Found Via Linkedln" were "HR Consultant" jobs at Accenture, 
Cask, Deloitte, Wells Fargo, Vanguard, and Microsoft, for example. As the Petitioner is applying for a waiver of the job 
offer requirement, it is not necessary for her to have a job offer from a specific employer. However, we will consider 
information about her current and prospective positions to illustrate the capacity in which she intends to work in order to 
determine whether her proposed endeavor meets the requirements of the first prong of the Dhanasar framework. 
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The Petitioner maintains on appeal that she "intends to continue her work as a Human Resources 
Manager, explicitly by enhancing the operational and workforce productivity of U.S. businesses, as well 
as by furthering her own consulting company .. .I t She asserts 
that she "will primarily serve as a strategic business partner, explicitly working with multiple executive 
leaders in implementing HR processes and operational initiatives that directly align with their respective 
companies' mission and objectives." 
The record includes information about the role of HR management, maximizing human capital to 
create a competitive advantage, People Operations as a path to productivity, factors influencing 
employee happiness in the workplace, the value of operations management, the occupational outlook 
for HR managers, improvement of management skills and practices as a way to become more 
competitive, and the U.S. HR consulting industry. In addition, the Petitioner provided articles 
discussing the critical role of HR in making a company successful, reasons for having an effective 
employee development program, the history and future of operations, the scarcity of effective 
managers, foreign direct investment in the United States, factors contributing to a company's success 
or failure, the 2019 investment management outlook, and HR function outsourcing. She also offered 
information about the value of HR in successful organizations, operational innovation as a contributor 
to business growth, methods for boosting employee engagement, factors affecting turnover rates of 
young managers, disruption in the corporate learning and development market, turning a business 
failure into a success, HR professionals' expanding responsibilities, the challenge of attracting talented 
workers, and the outlook for the U.S. management consulting industry. The record therefore shows 
that the Petitioner's proposed work as a human resources manager has substantial merit. 
In determining national importance, the relevant question is not the importance of the industry or 
profession in which the individual will work; instead we focus on the "the specific endeavor that the 
foreign national proposes to undertake." See Dhanasar , 26 I&N Dec. at 889. In Dhanasar, we further 
noted that "we look for broader implications" of the proposed endeavor and that "[a]n undertaking 
may have national importance for example, because it has national or even global implications within 
a particular field." Id. We also stated that "[a]n endeavor that has significant potential to employ U.S. 
workers or has other substantial positive economic effects, particularly in an economically depressed 
area, for instance, may well be understood to have national importance." Id. at 890. 
In her appeal brief, the Petitioner asserts that her proposed endeavor stands to "optimize the business 
functions of U.S. companies" and "offers broad implications to the U.S. business market, specifically 
through the implementation of training platforms and corporate measures that allow for workforce 
productivity and dependability." She contends that her undertaking is aimed at "helping companies to 
achieve their productivity goals, all while enhancing the performance of workers, and consequently 
contributing to the substantial increase of revenues - which will positively impact the U.S. economy." 
The Petitioner further argues that her proposed work "will produce significant national benefits, due 
to the ripple effects of her professional activities." Additionally, she states her endeavor "will 
prioritize the domestic job market, and ultimately help increase the flow of money in the U.S. on 
regional and national levels, which will contribute to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)." 
To evaluate whether the Petitioner's proposed endeavor satisfies the national importance requirement 
we look to evidence documenting the "potential prospective impact" of her work. Although the 
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Petitioner's statements reflect her intention to provide valuable HR management and consulting 
services for her future employer s and client s, she has not offered sufficient information and evidence 
to demon strate that the prospecti ve impact of her propos ed endeavor rises to the level of national 
importance. In Dhana sar we determined that the petitioner ' s teaching activities did not rise to the 
level of having national importance because they would not impact his field more broadly. Id. at 893 . 
Here , we find the record does not show that the Petitioner's proposed endeavor stands to sufficiently 
extend beyond her potential emplo yers, her company , and clientele to impact the human resourc es 
field or U.S. economy more broadly at a level commensurate with national importance. 
Furthermore, the Petitioner has not demonstrated that the specific endeavor she proposes to undertake 
has significant potential to employ U.S. workers or otherwise offers substantial positi ve economic 
effects for our nation . Without sufficient information or evidence regarding any projected U.S. economic 
impact or job creation attributable to her future work , the record does not show that benefits to the U.S. 
regional or national economy resulting from the Petitioner's HR management projects would reach the 
level of "substantial positive economic effects" contemplated by Dhanasar . Id. at 890. Accordingly, 
the Petitioner's propo sed work does not meet the first prong of the Dhanasar framework. 
Because the document ation in the record does not establish the national importance of her proposed 
endeavor as required by the first prong of the Dhanasar precedent decision , the Petitioner has not 
demonstrated eligibility for a national interest waiver. Further analysis of her eligibility under the second 
and third prongs outlined in Dhanasar, therefore , would serve no meaningful purpose. 
III. CONCLUSION 
As the Petitioner has not met the requisite first prong of the Dhanasar analytical framework , we conclude 
that she has not established she is eligible for or otherwise merits a national interest waiver as a matter 
of discretion. The appeal will be dismissed for the above stated reasons , with each considered as an 
independent and alternate basis for the decision . 
ORDER: The appeal is dismi ssed. 
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