Being Well Positioned to Advance Your Endeavor

You have an endeavor, and this is the half of the petition that is about you — for the researchers, engineers, clinicians and founders building it, and for anyone answering a Request for Evidence that questions whether they are well positioned. The first and third prongs have their own pages.

This is the most misunderstood point in NIW practice. The AAO acknowledged that forecasting feasibility or future success is hard for petitioners and officers alike, and that many innovations and entrepreneurial endeavors ultimately fail, in whole or in part, despite an intelligent plan and competent execution. Petitioners therefore do not have to demonstrate that their endeavors are more likely than not to ultimately succeed. They still have to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that they are well positioned to advance them. Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. at 890.

USCIS carries that forward and adds the limit. A person may be well positioned to advance an endeavor without being able to show the endeavor will more likely than not succeed; unsubstantiated claims, though, do not meet the petitioner's burden of proof. The uncertainty of the outcome is forgiven; the absence of evidence is not.

Exhibits do not make this prong on their own. The petitioner has to document past achievements, explain how those achievements relate to the proposed endeavor or show progress toward achieving it, and corroborate the projections the endeavor rests on. USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM F.5(D)(3).

The explaining is where petitions are lost. A citation record documents standing in a field; on its own it does not show that you are positioned to advance the particular endeavor you have proposed. Weight also tracks your role — the more integral a person is to an endeavor, the stronger the case that the person is well positioned to advance it.

In STEM cases USCIS treats an advanced degree tied to the endeavor as meaningful. A Ph.D. in a STEM field tied to the proposed endeavor, where the work furthers a critical and emerging technology or another STEM area important to U.S. competitiveness or national security, is an especially positive factor to be considered along with the other evidence. The same passage draws the line: a degree in and of itself is not a sufficient basis to determine that a person is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor. USCIS Policy Manual, 6 USCIS-PM F.5(D)(4).

For entrepreneurs the analogous limit is ownership, which rarely establishes eligibility on its own. General experience in a field can also fall short of showing you are positioned for a particular venture inside it — the Policy Manual's example is a person whose banking experience is limited to work as a teller or accounts manager, proposing to advise U.S. banks nationally.

A record of success shown through outcomes instead of titles — work adopted, technology in use by named organizations, results others rely on.

Documentation of progress since the endeavor began: funding awarded, milestones met, systems deployed, trials opened, users onboarded.

Independent third-party interest — correspondence from prospective customers, investment or grant records, contracts or licenses — carrying dates and specifics.

Expert letters from people with first-hand knowledge, each anchored to a document elsewhere in the record showing the same fact.