Employment-based Immigration for Researchers, Founders and STEM Professionals
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Led by immigration attorney and PhD scientist
We work closely with scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals, including postdocs and PhD students, to craft thorough, evidence-backed immigration petitions. Our legal and technical fluency lets us build strong petitions from the ground up.
We have experience preparing the EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW), O-1A, and EB-1A for researchers and founders across the STEM areas.
NIW and EB-1A can be self-sponsored, requiring neither an employer sponsor nor a job offer. O-1A provides work authorization - in many cases, an independent agent can act as sponsor instead of the employer.
O-1A is especially suited for technical founders and consultants. We prepare carefully crafted O-1A petitions for technical experts, and collaborate with an experienced O-1A agent who acts as the expert's sponsor.
The Basics of NIW
NIW is a specialized immigration pathway particularly well-suited to STEM workers.
It is a potential option for individuals having an advanced degree, such as a Master's or PhD (or, alternatively, having "exceptional ability"), whose prospective work can be shown to be "in the national interest" of the United States.
If the NIW petition is approved, the person may apply for permanent residence (a green card) through adjustment of status or consular processing when an immigrant visa is available.
The foundation of NIW is the "proposed endeavor" — a detailed explanation of the future work you intend to pursue in the United States.
To obtain NIW, you must establish:
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your proposed endeavor has substantial merit and national importance,
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you are well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor, and
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on balance, waiving the usual job-offer and labor-certification requirements would benefit the U.S.
Crafting a Winning NIW Petition
A strong petition should do more than establish that your general research area is important. It should define your individual work with clarity and enough detail to establish substantial merit and national importance.
Specificity matters. Overly broad petitions that define your future work too broadly, fail to connect it with your past experience, or lack sufficient objective evidence, can be vulnerable to Requests for Evidence (RFEs) or denials.
Objective evidence shouldn't exist in a vacuum. Your papers, presentations, awards, funding, and patent applications should be presented strategically to help prove the legal elements of NIW.
Our Approach
Legal and technical expertise. Attorney Lucas Koziol, PhD, is a former industry scientist with more than 25 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and has prepared NIW, EB-1A, and O-1A petitions for researchers across the physical sciences, engineering, and computing.
For NIW, our approach focuses on four key elements:
Proposed endeavor development. The proposed endeavor is the foundation of your NIW petition. We discuss your technical work to create a proposed endeavor that:
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is detailed enough to establish substantial merit and national importance
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connects logically to your past experience and qualifications
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anticipates concerns commonly raised by USCIS
Objective evidence. A strong petition should draw a clear picture of how your previous record positions you to advance your proposed endeavor.
Citation totals are only one component. Some fields publish more than others. A small number of papers showing progress toward your endeavor can be more effective than a large number that is not logically tied to the rest of the petition.
Journal and citation metrics can be used to highlight the impact of individual papers.
Expert letters can strengthen your petition, but should go beyond praising you in broad terms. Instead, they should provide specific support for the legal points in your petition.
A clear narrative. Your technical work must be described with enough detail to establish its merit and national importance, without becoming inaccessible to a non-expert.
We create a narrative showing how your work will:
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solve important technical problems
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connect to broader national priorities, and
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have broader impact in your field, an important U.S. industry or region, or the public.
Scientific Review. Before filing, your petition is reviewed the way research is reviewed, critically, by scientists. Our founding attorney is a PhD physical chemist, and our consulting researchers, including a professor of computer science, help us test the technical narrative in fields from chemistry, energy, materials, engineering, computing, software and AI.
Fields We Cover
We bring legal and scientific expertise and experience filing immigration petitions covering these areas:
chemistry · energy · ecology · marine science · aerospace engineering · materials · education · engineering · computer science · AI/ML · data science.
