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UNIVERSITY CORNER - INS APPEALS UNIT REVERSES SERVICE CENTER AND APPROVES NATIONAL INTEREST WAIVER FOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST 
In a key case involving a research scientist, the Administrative Appeals Unit ("AAU")of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Office of Administrative Appeals overruled the Nebraska Service Center (the "NSC")and approved a national interest waiver-based permanent residency application. Though the case did not involve a university per se, it provides a useful precedent for university research scientists seeking national interest classification. The case involved a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The NSC had found that the basic requirement of being a member of the professions holding an advanced degree was met. But the NSC held that the Mayo Clinic had not established that the waiver of the labor certification requirements would be in the national interest. 
In defining "national interest" the AAU referred to a 1989 Congressional report which noted that Congress "had focused on national interest by increasing the number and proportion of visas for immigrants who would benefit the United States economically and otherwise." The AAU also noted that the burden is on the petitioner to show that the alien will provide a "prospective national benefit" to the national interest. 
Richard Breitman, the the Minneapolis-based attorney who represented the alien, presented two key support letters. The first was from another doctor at the Mayo Clinic. The doctor referred to the substantial impact the alien's work would have on the fight against a number of neuromuscular diseases affecting children. Specifically, the support letter stated that the health care of millions of Americans are affected by the diseases and that many fatalities would not be prevented if the research did not continue. The second letter was from a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. That letter stated the alien's work is vitally important to the US. Breitman also included evidence of the alien's publication record, citations to the alien's research, other letters attesting to the national interest issue. The AAU agreed and held that the alien qualified for a national interest waiver.