EB-2 NIW for Pilots

USCIS publishes some appeals-office decisions on denied I-140 petitions. Between February 2023 and January 2025 it posted at least six involving pilots and flight instructors; all six appeals were dismissed. These are non-precedent decisions: they bind no one, and postings are selective, so this is no tally of how pilots fare.

The recurring finding is that the benefit stops at the employer and the students. Of an airline pilot moving into instructing, the AAO wrote that the record "does not show how his individual pilot or teaching services stand to sufficiently extend beyond his potential or futuristic employers or students," and that a pilot shortage "does not render his proposed endeavor nationally important." In Re: 26399878 (AAO Apr. 17, 2023).

Another petitioner, a senior instructor at a Florida flight school, submitted expert letters and a commissioned impact study. It did not matter: he would work "at an individual flight school that will exclusively benefit from all of his efforts," and "his proposed endeavor involves only the 80 individual pilots he will train per year." In Re: 31459131 (AAO July 15, 2024).

Invoking innovation did not help either: a petition built on sustainable aeronautics stated "general goals without defining his specific endeavor." In Re: 34885621 (AAO Jan. 29, 2025). Five of the six were resolved on the first prong alone, none reaching whether the pilot was well positioned. What failed was the design of the endeavor, not the pilot.

The guidance rejects the shortage argument by name: "Proposing to work in an occupation with a national shortage or serve in a consulting capacity for others seeking to work in an occupation with a national shortage alone, is also insufficient." USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM F.5(D)(3). The point repeats on the third prong: evidence of a national labor shortage in the person's occupation would not, by itself, satisfy that prong either.

This is not a recent tightening. The appeals office gave the reason in 2023 and 2024, in identical words: "shortages of qualified workers are directly addressed by the U.S. Department of Labor through the labor certification process." In Re: 26399878 (AAO Apr. 17, 2023); In Re: 31459131 (AAO July 15, 2024). Shortage is what labor certification exists to test; a waiver asks to skip that process.

USCIS does not publish approvals. What follows is built from the defects the appeals office identified, and it describes no petition that actually worked.

An innovation in training, as opposed to the delivery of training. One decision faulted a petitioner because "the proposed endeavor does not introduce new training processes or methodologies." In Re: 34557054 (AAO Jan. 3, 2025). An endeavor built on a method, curriculum, or safety protocol the pilot developed — with evidence that interest in adopting it runs past one employer — answers that defect.

Specificity, with a plan for deployment. The sustainable-aeronautics decision rejected vagueness; the subject matter was never the problem. And the endeavor has to reach the field: the Policy Manual's examples are widespread interest in adoption or licensing, a novel and important operational process, or impact on how others develop comparable work. Dhanasar's own example is an endeavor with "national or even global implications within a particular field." 26 I&N Dec. at 889.

Hours, type ratings, check-airman and examiner designations, and instructor certificates go to whether you are well positioned, which is the second prong. Folding them into the first produced the observation that a pilot's distinguished record was "generally relevant not to the first prong... but to the second." In Re: 31456309 (AAO June 12, 2024).

What is the endeavor, as distinct from the job? The officer looks for what the petition proposes to do specifically within the occupation. A description that reads as a job invites the finding these decisions kept making. USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM F.5(D)(1), (D)(3).

Where does the benefit stop? For a pilot the natural answer is the airline, the school, and the students — and employer-limited benefit is not sufficiently relevant. The record has to show implications for a field, a region, or the public at large.

Does the occupation support EB-2 at all? Threshold classification is assessed first, and USCIS may deny without ever reaching the waiver — a particular risk where a pilot relies on flight-training certificates to meet the exceptional-ability criteria.

For pilots the first conversation often ends with our saying the profile does not support a waiver — a cheaper answer than a denial. The assessment is the work; the filing only follows if it survives.

The first question we ask is what the endeavor is other than the job. A methodology you built, a safety program you designed, research you are actually doing — that is something to evaluate. If the honest answer is that you fly the line and fly it well, we will say so.

We do not build cases on the pilot shortage, and we check EB-2 eligibility before anyone drafts anything — a review of your documents, not your flying.