An EB-2 NIW Guide to U.S. Residency for Healthcare Professionals  

As demand in the United States for qualified professionals in every field of healthcare grows, so do opportunities for foreign practitioners to take their skills there to live and work.  

One of the legal avenues for doing so is the EB-2 NIW visa, which is designed for applicants with “exceptional talent” to bypass the usual requirement of having a job offer in advance. The logic behind this is that the applicant’s skills are such that finding a job and immediately contributing to the economy will not be a challenge.  

The EB-2 NIW visa is a way to both help employers secure the staff they need to complete highly specialized tasks and promote the overall development of the American economy through the addition of individuals who are highly trained and accomplished in their fields.  

This intersection of healthcare and the EB-2 NIW visa program was the subject of a recent video podcast organized by Joorney, Your Guide to U.S. Residency With EB-2 NIW Visa for Healthcare Professionals.  

For professional guidance and insights into this topic, we were joined by immigration attorney Stanislav Shamayev, who has worked with many EB-2 NIW applicants from the healthcare field. Thanks to him, we got lots of useful answers and commentary regarding many aspects of the visa program and examples of how his clients have been able to successfully use it to move forward in their careers.  

You can watch the entire presentation at the link below or read some of the highlights of the conversation.  

Here are some of the key takeaways from Your Guide to U.S. Residency With EB-2 NIW Visa for Healthcare Professionals: 

Healthcare is a natural fit for the EB-2 NIW visa 

Early in the conversation, we learned that professionals with a healthcare background are a good fit for the EB-2 NIW visa for a simple reason – the education or certification that qualifies them to work as a medical professional.  

That same education or certification satisfies one of the key requirements of the visa – having some specialized knowledge that is formally confirmed by certification or a degree.  

If you have a license to practice as a healthcare pro, you obviously have the education and training needed to secure that authority. In other words, the same process that makes someone eligible to work in certain jobs in healthcare also demonstrates that the applicant has the skills and knowledge that the EB-2 NIW was designed for.  

Approval rates are declining (or standards are rising) 

Stanislav reports that based on his experience and information from fellow immigration attorneys, approval rates for EB-2 NIW applications are down from what they were just five years ago. It’s hard to say if this is a reflection of higher standards or a rise in applications that included weaker cases, but there’s no mistaking the recent change.  

He also explains that one possibility for the decrease in approvals is a change in how cases are reviewed by immigration officers.  

Policies can change, says Stanislav, but how they are interpreted and implemented is unpredictable.  

Specific fields that are in demand 

Healthcare is a massive industry that includes an equally enormous number of specializations and unique job profiles. It’s impossible to list all the specific categories that are in special demand at any given time, but we learned about a few thanks to Stanislav’s observations in his work.  

“I do believe mental health is number one,” he told us. “Then diagnostics in general, especially bringing new methodology to diagnostics, bringing the technology and innovations, how to make a better diagnostic. The pharmaceutical industry is also very good (in terms of demand).”  

We also learned that teaching and medical research are also overlooked fields in terms of the number of opportunities available.  

An inventive strategy for dealing with RFEs 

Requests for Evidence (RFE) are a fact of life when filing EB-2 NIW visas. As the name suggests, they are sent by U.S. immigration authorities when they want or need some kind of clarification on a point in the application.  

Sometimes, an RFE is issued because the process calls for it, as in the case of a missing required document. Other times, however, the decision to issue the RFE is strictly a matter of his or her discretion. In many of these cases, says Stanislav, it’s a sign that the application is likely to go nowhere.  

His experience has taught him that, instead of answering the RFE and prolonging the case, there is a different, sometimes better option. 

“Sometimes we don’t respond to RFEs, but instead we withdraw the case and refile it just because sometimes it’s clear that that immigration officer made up his or her mind,” he told us.  

“Sometimes it’s obvious. So, we don’t want to drag this case and just get the denial anyway. We instead withdraw the case as if nothing happened and refile it so another officer could see the same case. And in 90 % of the cases, the result is an approval because a different person has different perspective. And that also shows how subjective those cases are. They’re super subjective.” 

These are just some of the takeaways you’ll find in the full version of Your Guide to U.S. Residency With EB-2 NIW Visa for Healthcare Professionals with special guest Stanislav Shamayev. Watch the full recording of the webinar on Joorney’s YouTube channel. 

Reach out to us today if you need an EB-2 NIW business plan.