NIW Approval for a Self-Employed Portrait Painter of Exceptional Ability

Facts

The client was a much sought-after portrait painter with an affluent client-base throughout the U.S. His previously filed DIY EB-1 petition was denied on typical and uninteresting evidentiary grounds.

Though he had a steady history of O-1 petition approvals, he was tired of being a long-term nonimmigrant and having to spend time and money on O-1 extensions, visa applications, and constantly worrying about the next extension or status maintenance.

Strategy

My strategy was to forget about EB-1 and focus on a lower-level classification that could achieve the same result.
 
We went with an exceptional ability National Interest Waiver petition under the Matter of New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) that would meet and exceed the exceptional ability criteria. For the NIW, we argued the national scope of employment by geo tagging U.S. clients and argued the national benefit and eligibility for a waiver prong through extensive expert testimony.
 
The most remarkable feature of this case is the client’s occupation. It just doesn’t appear to fit the expectations for a typical NIW case. So it would not be surprising if there aren’t any other foreign portrait painters who have won petition approvals in the same classification. 

Results

NIW approval was achieved in 5 months.