A National Interest Waiver, or NIW, is an employment based second preference petition.  A person qualifies for this benefit if he/she falls within the second preference employment based category, namely a person in the professions who either holds an advanced degree or is considered possessing exceptional ability in the sciences, business or arts.  Normally, these applicants are subject to the labor certification requirement.  However, an exception exists if their employment is in the “national interest”.  Thus, a beneficiary of a successful NIW is exempt from the requirement that his or her employer first obtain an individual labor certification from the Department of Labor.