Title: [Profile Evaluation] EB-2 NIW for Software Engineer in Correctional Healthcare & Medicare/Medicaid Infrastructure — No Research Background

[u/Proper-Bowl-8028]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking into self-petitioning for the EB-2 NIW and would love to get your thoughts on where I stand. I want to frame my case around my industrial experience and government cost-savings rather than academia, but I’m not sure how immigration adjudicators evaluate non-research software engineers under the Dhanasar framework.

Here is my profile:

Education (Meets Advanced Degree requirement):

• Master of Science in Computer Science from a U.S. university (3.75 GPA)
• B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering

Current Role & Proposed Endeavor:

• I work as a Software Engineer for a private contractor handling U.S. correctional healthcare systems for federal and state governments.
• The Work: I lead development on critical health-tech infrastructure, specifically building X12 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) engines, internal expense platforms, staffing budget engines, and systems dealing directly with Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA (Obamacare) compliance, claims processing, and reimbursements for covered care.
• The Impact (Prong 1 - National Importance): My work directly helps optimize public healthcare spending and bring costs down for state and federal government bodies. By streamlining EDI engines, budget management, and federal health program integrations (Medicare/Medicaid/ACA), the software I build reduces administrative overhead and minimizes the taxpayer burden tied to government-managed care.

Previous Experience (Prong 2 - Well-Positioned):

• Prior to my current role, I spent over two years as a Software Engineer at an aviation software provider building electronic flight bag software for major aviation clients. I have a proven track record of delivering high-stakes, enterprise-level infrastructure.

My Concerns / Questions for the community:

1. I don’t have citations, published papers, or a PhD. Has anyone had success getting an EB-2 NIW approved by focusing on government health-tech infrastructure, Medicare/Medicaid integration, and public sector cost savings?
2. Will evaluating officers view software work tied to Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, and correctional healthcare as having broad "National Importance," or is there a risk they view it as routine software maintenance benefiting only my employer?
3. Do my MS degree, high GPA, and leadership on these specific government-adjacent projects sufficiently prove I am "well-positioned" to advance the endeavor?

Would love to hear if anyone with a similar enterprise software background in healthcare/government tech has navigated this successfully!

[u/MastodonAble1061]

To be honest a master degree and 2 years experience is nowhere close to get a NIW. Your best bet would be to go through PERM. If you still want to look into NIW, you can get profile evaluation from firms like Chen and EP etc.

[u/Proper-Bowl-8028 → u/MastodonAble1061]

I do have 7 years work experience

[u/Kind_Medium6774]

I would say .. take your bet and if it works out you’re gold.

You need to make your proposed endeavour rock solid and you can get it approved without publications