EB-2 National Interest Waiver Petition

This letter is submitted in support of Dr. Rafael Chen's petition for classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree under section 203(b)(2)(A) of the Act, and for a waiver of the job offer and labor certification requirements in the national interest under section 203(b)(2)(B)(i).

The Proposed Endeavor, Stated Precisely. Dr. Chen will continue developing and deploying open diagnostic infrastructure that predicts degradation acceleration and thermal-risk conditions in grid-scale battery fleets before visible performance loss, and will continue disseminating that infrastructure to U.S. utilities, regional transmission organizations, and state energy regulators.

This framing is deliberate. The endeavor is defined by the diagnostic infrastructure and its dissemination, not by Dr. Chen's current employment. The evidence below establishes that the endeavor already operates independently of any single employer: his open-source library is deployed across 2.3 GWh of storage capacity, is cited in sixteen independent peer-reviewed publications, and has been referenced in a state energy office safety guidance memorandum. See Exhibits P1-02, P1-03.

Summary of Argument. The endeavor has substantial merit and national importance because grid storage reliability is a documented federal priority and because this specific diagnostic infrastructure is already relied upon by operators outside Dr. Chen's employer. Dr. Chen is well positioned to advance it based on his record of building systems the field adopted. On balance, a waiver benefits the United States because the labor certification process cannot practically accommodate an endeavor whose beneficiaries are competing utilities, an RTO, and a state regulator rather than a single employer.

The evidence satisfies all three prongs of Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016).