sustained EB-2 NIW Case: Management Information Systems

identifyingdatadeletedto
preventcl~v1}! un....
invasionofpersonalpriVlC1
PUBLICCOpy
u.s.Department of Homeland Security
20 Mass. Ave., N.W., Rm. 3000
Washington, DC 20529
u.S. Citizenship
and Immigration
Services
FILE:
LIN 06 009 52076
Office: NEBRASKA SERVICE CENTER Date: t1AY 2 9 ~uH
INRE: Petitioner:
Beneficiary:
PETITION: Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker as a Member of the Professions Holding an Advanced
Degree or an Alien of Exceptional Ability Pursuant to Section 203(b)(2) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 11 53(b)(2)
ON BEHALF OF PETITIONER:
INSTRUCTIONS:
This is the decision of the Administrative Appeals Office in your case. All documents have been returned to
the office that originally decided your case. Any further inquiry must be made to that office .
./f{(ll.{,fYIVf/) ttf) n:
C Robert P. Wiemann, Chief
"TV Administrative Appeals Office
www.uscis.gov
DISCUSSION: The Director, Nebraska Service Center, denied the employment-based immigrant visa
petition, which is now before the Administrative Appeals Office on appeal. The appeal will be
sustained and the petition will be approved.
The petitioner seeks classification pursuant to section 203(b)(2) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(the Act), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2), as an alien of exceptional ability or a member of the professions
holding an advanced degree. The petitioner seeks employment as an assistant professor. The petitioner
asserts that an exemption from the requirement of a job offer, and thus of an alien employment
certification, is in the national interest of the United States. The director found that the petitioner
qualifies for the classification sought but that the petitioner had not established that an exemption from
the requirement of a job offer would be in the national interest of the United States.
On appeal , counsel submits a brief and additional evidence. For the reasons discussed below, we
withdraw the director's adverse findings.
Section 203(b) of the Act states in pertinent part that:
(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) ... the Attorney General may, when the Attorney General deems it to
be in the national interest, waive the requirement of subparagraph (A)
that an alien's services in the sciences, arts, professions, or business be
sought by an employer in the United States.
The petitioner holds a Ph.D. in Management Information from the State University of New York
(SUNY) at Buffalo. The petitioner's occupation falls within the pertinent regulatory definition of a
profession. The petitioner thus qualifies as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree.
The remaining issue is whether the petitioner has established that a waiver of the job offer requirement,
and thus an alien employment certification, is in the national interest.
Neither the statute nor pertinent regulations define the term "national interest." Additionally, Congress
did not provide a specific definition of "in the national interest." The Committee on the Judiciary
merely noted in its report to the Senate that the committee had "focused on national interest by
Page 3
increasing the number and proportion of visas for immigrants who would benefit the United States
economically and otherwise.... " S. Rep. No. 55, 101st Cong., 1st Sess., 11 (1989).
Supplementary information to the regulations implementing the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT),
published at 56 Fed. Reg. 60897,60900 (November 29, 1991), states:
The Service believes it appropriate to leave the application of this test as flexible as
possible, although clearly an alien seeking to meet the [national interest] standard must
make a showing significantly above that necessary to prove the "prospective national
benefit" [required of aliens seeking to qualify as "exceptional."] The burden will rest
with the alien to establish that exemption from, or waiver of, the job offer will be in the
national interest. Each case is to be judged on its own merits.
Matter ofNew York State Dep't. ofTransp., 22 I&N Dec. 215 (Comm. 1998), has set forth several
factors which must be considered when evaluating a request for a national interest waiver. First, it must
be shown that the alien seeks employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit. Next, it must be
shown that the proposed benefit will be national in scope. Finally, the petitioner seeking the waiver
must establish that the alien will serve the national interest to a substantially greater degree than would
an available U.S. worker having the same minimum qualifications.
It must be noted that, while the national interest waiver hinges onprospective national benefit, it clearly
must be established that the alien's past record justifies projections of future benefit to the national
interest. The petitioner's subjective assurance that the alien will, in the future, serve the national
interest cannot suffice to establish prospective national benefit. The inclusion of the term "prospective"
is used here to require future contributions by the alien, rather than to facilitate the entry of an alien
with no demonstrable prior achievements, and whose benefit to the national interest would thus be
entirely speculative.
We concur with the director that the petitioner works in an area of intrinsic merit, information
systems studies, and that the proposed benefits of his work, improved integration of business
systems, would be national in scope. It remains, then, to determine whether the petitioner will
benefit the national interest to a greater extent than an available U.S. worker with the same minimum
qualifications.
Eligibility for the waiver must rest with the alien's own qualifications rather than with the position
sought. In other words, we generally do not accept the argument that a given project is so important
that any alien qualified to work on this project must also qualify for a national interest waiver.
Matter ofNew York State Dep 't of Transp. , 22 I&N Dec. at 218. Moreover, it cannot suffice to state
that the alien possesses useful skills, or a "unique background." Special or unusual knowledge or
training does not inherently meet the national interest threshold. The issue of whether similarly­
trained workers are available in the United States is an issue under the jurisdiction of the Department
of Labor. Id. at 221.
At issue is whether this petitioner's contributions in the field are of such unusual significance that the
petitioner merits the special benefit of a national interest waiver, over and above the visa
classification he seeks. By seeking an extra benefit, the petitioner assumes an extra burden of proof.
A petitioner must demonstrate a past history of achievement with some degree of influence on the
field as a whole. Id. at 219, n. 6. In evaluating the petitioner's achievements, we note that original
innovation, such as demonstrated by a patent, is insufficient by itself. Whether the specific
innovation serves the national interest must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Id. at 221, n. 7.
As stated above, the petitioner received his Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo. In 2002, the petitioner
accepted an assistant professor position at Missouri State University, where he remained as of the
date of filing. The petitioner's research focuses on developing integrative business information
systems through the application of ontologies, multi-agent systems and mobile computing
technologies.
The petitioner submitted le research director, and one of his
Ph.D. dissertation co-chairs who both discuss the petitioner's Ph.D. research and
their continued collaborations after the petitioner moved to Missouri State University.
first discusses the petitioner's three-stage model for designing mobile computer systems that allows
information sharing and communication,\. This model addresses the issues of moving patterns and
security requirements while minimizing design costs. This work, however, had not been published
as of the date of filing.
Next discusses the petitioner's work in the area of Ontology-Driven Information
Systems (ODIS). An ontology defines fundamental concepts underlying a specific area of
information system. The petitioner demonstrated "that a well-developed ontology helped system
developers and users to communicate unambiguously, to share their knowledge seamlessly, and to
increase their knowledge reuse." The petitioner's article reporting this work had been moderately
cited as of the date of filing.
The petitioner also developed an ontology for Multiagent-based Integrative Business Information
Systems (MIB~ng eight fundamental concepts underlying the development process for
these systems_I affirms that this work has theoretical and practical implications and that
it was well received when presented. In addition, the petitioner developed a MIBIS modeling
grammar, Multiagent-based Integrative Business Modeling Language (MibML), that provides
guidelines for system developers an development time. This work was presented at
a conference where, according to an endowed professor at the University of
Connecticut, it was one of 40 out of 412 papers nominated for a Best Paper Award.
The petitioner also overcame system developer confusion in determining what concepts to use to model
real-world phenomena by developing unambiguous mapping between the grammatical concepts and
real-world concepts. The petitioner presented this work and had revised it for publication as of the date
of filing.
explains that one of the main challenges faced by systems developers is modeling the real
world phenomena and sharing and reusing knowledge among different stakeholders. The petitioner
introduced "software agent," a software program that is able to mimic human behavior, as the basic unit
for modeling information systems that can support business systems and information integration.
an associate professor at Oakland University, i~chaired the
mini-track that nominated the petitioner's paper for a Best Paper Award. _ffirms that
the MIBIS concept is relevant for companies involved in supply chain management and electronic
business where coordination among different companies is required. He continues that the petitioner's
grammar allows system developers to "stamp out software agents, and therefore facilitates MIBIS
modeling and design."
Significantly, Director of Research at the College of Business Administration,
University of out on a, asserts that the petitioner's MibML research "is of particular interest to my
research team and me. We are adapting MibML for building an agent-based fraud detection system
that could be useful in many domains including healthcare and insurance."
Similarly, an associate professor at Arizona State University, asserts that he
has cited the petitioner's MIBIS related work not only in his publications but in his research proposals.
He further indicates that one of his Ph.D. seminars includes the petitioner's papers as part of a
discussion set. , a distinguished professor at Arizona State University, confirms his
usage of one of the petitioner's as yet unpublished papers to support a Ph.D. seminar.
In addition to the above letters, three of which are from independent researchers applying the
petitioner's work, the petitioner submitted his publications, conference presentations, evidence that one
of his articles has been moderately cited and materials confirming his role as one of three co-chairs for
a "mini-track" at the 2005 American Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2005). The
petitioner also serves as a member of the Executive Committee for the Special Interest Group on
Ontology Driven Information System (SIG-ODIS), although that group was only founded in 2005 by
the petitioner's own Ph.D. research director. As noted by the director, not all of the manuscripts that
cite the petitioner's work bear any indicia of publication. That said, the petitioner also submitted an
Internet search result confirming the moderate citation of the petitioner's work. Moreover, on appeal,
the petitioner provides the source of each article citing his own work. Also on appeal, the petitioner
submits evidence that his articles are listed as required reading for courses at the University of South
Florida and the Universite de Lausanne.
Given the evidence of record in the aggregate, including but not limited to the evidence discussed
above, we are persuaded that the petitioner has demonstrated an influential record of success in his
field. It does not appear to have been the intent of Congress to grant national interest waivers on the
basis of the overall importance of a given field of research, rather than on the merits of the individual
alien. That being said, the above testimony, and further testimony in the record, establishes that the
information systems community recognizes the significance of this petitioner's research rather than
simply the general area of research. The benefit of retaining this alien's services outweighs the
·.~ .
national interest that is inherent in the alien employment certification process. Therefore, on the basis
of the evidence submitted, the petitioner has established that a waiver of the requirement of an
approved alien employment certification will be in the national interest of the United States.
The burden of proof in these proceedings rests solely with the petitioner. Section 291 of the Act,
8 U.S.C. § 1361. The petitioner has sustained that burden. Accordingly, the decision of the director
denying the petition will be withdrawn and the petition will be approved.
ORDER: The appeal is sustained and the petition is approved.