WeGreened Approval Statistics: Week of November 17, 2025
During the week of November 17 to November 23, 2025, WeGreened received 102 approval notices from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Of the 102 approvals, 64 were for NIW (National Interest Waiver), 31 for EB1A (Alien of Extraordinary Ability), 5 for EB1B (Outstanding Professors or Researchers), and 2 for O1A (Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement). The EB-2 NIW category again represented the majority of approvals, while the EB-1A category maintained a strong presence among accomplished researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals.
EB1A and NIW Credential Analysis
EB1A petitioners demonstrated strong and concentrated scholarly productivity, with publications ranging from 9 to 232 (Q1: 15, median 21, Q3: 36) and citations between 153 and 8,546 (Q1: 514, median 752, Q3: 1,318). These figures reflect substantial academic achievement and international impact, with most EB1A approvals clustering in the low- to mid-twenties for publication counts and several hundred citations, along with a number of highly cited outliers in the thousands. Almost all EB1A petitioners held doctoral or medical degrees and worked in STEM or clinically adjacent disciplines.
NIW petitioners showed a broader range of academic and professional profiles. Publication counts ranged from 1 to 36 (Q1: 6, median 9, Q3: 15), and citations ranged from 12 to 3,025 (Q1: 62, median 135, Q3: 302.5). This distribution highlights USCIS’s flexibility in recognizing both well-established scholars and mid-career professionals whose work carries substantial merit and national importance, even when their citation counts are lower than typical EB1A profiles. Most NIW petitioners held PhD or medical degrees, a substantial group held master’s-level credentials, and a smaller number qualified through bachelor’s degrees plus progressive post-baccalaureate experience or exceptional ability under the EB-2 standard.
Insights on Petitioner Backgrounds and Fields
EB1A approvals this week spanned environmental and energy engineering, semiconductor and chemical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics and advanced manufacturing, and several computer science subfields involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data infrastructure. On the biomedical and clinical side, EB1A petitioners worked in pain medicine, neuroscience, anesthesiology, otolaryngology, tumor biology, epidemiology, and clinical medicine. Many petitioners served at universities and research institutes as assistant professors, research assistant professors, staff scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and senior researchers, while others worked in distinguished R&D organizations or medical centers in high-responsibility roles.
NIW approvals covered causal AI and machine learning, computer science and software engineering, high-performance computing, environmental, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, materials science and polymer engineering, transportation systems, architecture, and biomolecular simulations. Life science and health-related NIW fields included plant biology and microbiology, viral immunology, molecular genetics, biomedical informatics, biostatistics, computational biophysics, oncology, epidemiology, neurology, gastroenterology, and broader clinical medicine. Other nationally important areas included mathematics, education, oceanography, environmental science, and biology and biochemistry. Profiles frequently included Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, assistant professors, research scientists, data scientists and applied scientists in industry, as well as practicing clinicians and clinical fellows whose projects align with U.S. priorities in healthcare, AI infrastructure, energy efficiency, environmental protection, agriculture, and economic resilience.
Highlighted NIW Case: Early-Career AI Systems Engineer with Distinctive Impact Profile
A standout NIW approval this week involves an early-career AI and systems engineer whose background looks quite different from many peers in computer science. Instead of a traditional master’s or Ph.D., the petitioner qualified for EB-2 based on a foreign bachelor’s degree in computing plus more than five years of progressively responsible experience in both academic research and large-scale infrastructure development. The publication record is relatively compact compared to senior AI researchers, but several peer-reviewed conference papers have already become highly cited in their subfields and have been incorporated into follow-on work on distributed systems and human–computer interaction. At the same time, the petitioner has contributed to production systems supporting large numbers of users at a major digital services organization, demonstrating a rare combination of strong research credentials and proven, real-world impact on mission-critical platforms.
Our legal team framed the case under the Dhanasar NIW framework by emphasizing how the proposed endeavor—designing efficient, scalable software and systems for AI and data-intensive computing—directly aligns with U.S. priorities in AI competitiveness, digital infrastructure, and energy-conscious computing. We showed that the petitioner is well positioned through high-impact publications, strong citation performance for this career stage, expert support from established computer scientists, and a track record of translating research into deployed systems. In the “on balance” analysis, we argued that waiving the job offer and labor certification would enable the petitioner to collaborate across research labs, cloud providers, and infrastructure teams, amplifying benefits to the broader U.S. AI ecosystem rather than confining contributions to a single employer. This result underscores that NIW in computer science is not reserved only for long publication lists or advanced degrees; a focused, influential record and a clear national-interest narrative can be equally decisive.
Adjudication Trends and Policy Observations
EB1A: USCIS continues to focus on sustained acclaim, significant original contributions, and leadership in the field. Meeting at least three of the EB1A regulatory criteria remains necessary but not sufficient; officers also conduct a rigorous final merits analysis to determine whether the petitioner ranks among the small percentage at the very top of the field. This week’s EB1A approvals, which include traditional academic researchers, clinician–scientists, and senior industry engineers, underscore the importance of presenting criterion-by-criterion documentation that connects publications, citations, awards, and leadership roles to clear, field-wide influence rather than purely internal performance metrics.
NIW: Officers remain receptive to diverse academic and industry profiles when the record shows substantial merit, national importance, and that the petitioner is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor. This week’s results—including approvals in AI, advanced engineering, public health, and several nontraditional or early-career profiles—reaffirm that NIW adjudications follow a flexible, totality-of-the-evidence approach. Petitioners who clearly connect their work to U.S. priorities and present a credible, results-oriented plan to move that work forward—even if they differ from the “typical” profile in their field—are well positioned for success.