The USCIS, through its Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) has issued a precedent decision, overturning two decades of precedent on how one qualifies for National Interest Waivers and creating a less subjective three part test for those seeking permanent residence in the United States under this category. National Interest Waivers (NIW) were created by Congress in the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT 90) to allow individuals who fell under the second preference category of employment based immigration to skip the lengthy and always problematic "labor certification" process, if they could show that their immigration to America would be "in the National Interest." Congress did very little explaining about what this new term meant, and Legacy INS struggled for a long time to come up with their own definition and required proof for this category. Eventually, in the seminal case of Matter of New York State Dep’t of Transp. , 22 I&N Dec. 215 (Acting Assoc. Comm’r ...
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