EB-2 NIW FAQ

PetitionHQ is a case-strength assessment platform for the EB-2 National Interest Waiver. It returns an honest tier rating, prong-level Dhanasar gap analysis, and AI-drafted evidence dossier — and optionally matches you with vetted U.S. immigration attorneys. PetitionHQ is software. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.

We are focused exclusively on EB-2 NIW in V1 so the scoring, evidence framework, and attorney-matching layer can be best-in-class for one category before broadening. EB-1A and O-1 are on the roadmap; we will not ship them until the underlying scoring is as rigorous as it is for NIW.

About five minutes for the structured questionnaire. The tier rating, prong-level narrative, and gap analysis are returned immediately.

No. No service can — adjudication is at USCIS's discretion. PetitionHQ provides rigorous, evidence-based assessment and high-quality dossier materials to maximize the probability of approval.

Your profile is scored directly against the three Matter of Dhanasar prongs. Each prong is evaluated against the evidence patterns USCIS has historically rewarded: peer-reviewed publications, citation impact and field-normalized percentile, independent recommender letters, grants and prior funding, awards, peer-review and editorial work, patents, and the specificity of your proposed U.S. endeavor.

Strong = highly likely to qualify for EB-2 NIW today. Promising = qualifies with modest evidence buildup over the next 1–3 months. Borderline = qualifies but with material risk; consider 6–12 months of additional evidence buildup before filing. Not yet ready = significant gaps; consider an O-1 bridge or PERM-sponsored pathway in the meantime.

Honest enough that we will tell you when you are not ready. Roughly one in three applicants who complete the assessment receive a Borderline or Not yet ready tier with concrete guidance on which evidence to build. We would rather lose you to an honest result today than file you a petition that gets denied.

Yes. The assessment, tier rating, prong-level gap analysis, and pathway recommendation are free with no credit card and no account required to start.

PetitionHQ does not charge applicants a filing fee or referral fee. If you choose to engage one of our partner attorneys, you pay that attorney directly under their standard engagement letter — typical EB-2 NIW total cost (attorney fees + USCIS filing fees + ancillary costs) is $6,000–$15,000 depending on the firm and complexity.

Partner attorneys pay a flat monthly subscription for network access and matched leads. Applicants are never charged a referral, contingent, or success fee.

No. EB-2 NIW requires a U.S. master's degree (or foreign equivalent), OR a bachelor's degree plus five years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience, OR qualification under the EB-2 'exceptional ability' route (meeting at least 3 of 6 regulatory criteria). Most successful NIW petitioners hold a master's or PhD; bachelor's-plus-experience cases do succeed with strong evidence.

NIW adjudications historically reward work in U.S. priority fields: STEM research, AI/ML, biotech, climate, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, public-health research, healthcare workforce shortages. That said, NIW has been approved across dozens of fields — the framework is field-agnostic and rewards demonstrable national-level impact.

No. Attorney matching is optional. You can take the assessment and use the dossier with any attorney of your choosing — or proceed pro se if you are confident in your case.

We verify state-bar standing, confirm primary practice in U.S. immigration law with active EB-2 NIW caseload, review case-mix and field specialization, and check disciplinary history.

No. Nothing is shared with any attorney without your explicit, scoped consent. You see and approve each match before any documents are shared.

All sensitive documents are encrypted at rest in isolated object storage with token-scoped signed URLs. All traffic is HTTPS with HSTS. Sessions are JWT-based with server-side revocation. CSRF and rate-limit protection at the middleware layer. We do not use your data to train third-party AI models.

Applicant data is stored in U.S. and EU regions on Cloudflare R2 (object storage) and a managed Postgres database. We do not share data with third parties without explicit consent.

Yes. Email [email protected] with your account email and we will permanently delete your account and associated documents within 30 days, retaining only what U.S. law requires (e.g., financial records of any attorney engagement).

No. PetitionHQ is software. We do not provide legal advice. Legal representation is provided exclusively by independent partner attorneys licensed in the United States.

Yes. Applicants may be located anywhere. Our partner attorneys are licensed in the United States and represent applicants in USCIS proceedings regardless of the applicant's physical location.