In early 2025, our client Ms. X, a design researcher based in Chicago and Cambridge who has asked to stay anonymous in this case study, commissioned our firm Path Law Group to pursue an EB-2 visa with a National Interest Waiver (NIW) as she transitioned off F-1 student status following her graduate studies. Ms. X's six-year career had spanned human-centered design research across healthcare, sustainability, and education in the United States and abroad, including her current position as a Design Researcher at a leading global design consultancy, where she leads research and interaction design on enterprise-scale, AI-powered patient-insight tools for one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.
The mission
Ms. X needed to self-petition without an employer sponsor for an EB-2 classification based on her proposed endeavor to design and implement a human-centered, AI-powered digital health platform aimed at improving early awareness and treatment adoption for Alzheimer's disease and other low-awareness conditions, beginning with a mobile-first patient-and-caregiver application supported by a phased, multi-year research, pilot, and scaling plan.
The main challenge for this case was translating a career built primarily on enterprise design research and applied academic work into a forward-looking endeavor with demonstrable national importance. Ms. X’s case had to be one that could be shown to benefit the broader U.S. healthcare system and aging population, not merely the users of a single product built for a single employer.
The strategy
At an initial consultation in March 2025, our team reviewed H-1B, O-1, and EB-1 options before advising Ms. X that an EB-2 NIW built around her AI-and-healthcare work offered the strongest path forward, given the shrinking viability of other routes and the strength of her proposed endeavor. From there, the team built a petition anchored across the three Dhanasar prongs required for an NIW:
- Substantial merit and national importance: Established through Ms. X's proposed platform's alignment with federal priorities under the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA), the 2024 NAPA Authorization Act, the White House's AI Action Plan, and the HHS Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and its projected impact on early diagnosis, caregiver burden, and long-term healthcare costs nationwide.
- Well positioned to advance the endeavor: Established through Ms. X's Master of Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design, her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, her record of leading enterprise-scale AI research products for a major pharmaceutical client, and a detailed, phased execution plan spanning ethnographic research, MVP design, clinical pilot testing, and national scaling.
- Favorable balancing test: Established by demonstrating that Ms. X's interdisciplinary expertise in human-centered design, applied AI, and regulated healthcare research could not be adequately captured or replaced through the standard labor certification process, and that the urgency of the national dementia-care gap favored immediate, unrestricted advancement of her work.
- Significant recognition from recommenders and institutions: Established by including seven letters from healthcare, design, and academic leaders corroborating her record of success, along with citations of her earlier published work by international bodies including UNESCO and the European Commission.
Building this record required close coordination to refine the proposed-endeavor statement into a specific, phased plan. We also needed to secure signed recommendation letters from a deliberately diverse set of recommenders spanning industry and academia while compiling years of research, publications, awards, and press coverage into a single evidentiary package. The petition was filed under premium processing in January 2025.
A wave of Requests for Evidence had started to hit all NIWs starting in 2025. We feared that despite a very strong case, Ms. X would not be spared from an RFE. Our fears came true when USCIS subsequently issued a Request for Evidence. Our team stood strong though, and we responded by directing the officer back to evidence already in the record, revising recommendation letters to reflect field-level adoption of Ms. X's work, expanding the methodology description, and reframing the endeavor's scalability across health systems and community organizations rather than individual users alone.
Outcome
The EB-2 National Interest Waiver was approved.
Ms. X is now authorized to continue advancing her proposed endeavor in the United States, developing a human-centered, AI-powered digital health platform to improve early awareness and treatment adoption for Alzheimer's disease and related conditions, with the flexibility to pursue research partnerships, pilot programs, and nationwide dissemination central to her long-term plan. It was a joy to work with Ms. X, and we wish her well in her future endeavors!
