How to Define and Write Your Proposed Endeavor (NIW)

The one decision that shapes your whole case

If you only get one thing right in your EB2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) petition, make it the proposed endeavor. It is the noun every prong of the Dhanasar framework points back to. Prong 1 asks whether your endeavor has substantial merit and national importance. Prong 2 asks whether you are well positioned to advance your endeavor. Prong 3 asks whether it is beneficial to waive the job offer so you can pursue your endeavor. Get the endeavor wrong and all three prongs wobble; get it right and the rest of the petition almost writes itself.

This guide explains what the proposed endeavor is, how USCIS treats it under Matter of Dhanasar and the January 2025 policy update (PA-2025-03), how to set it at the right altitude, and how to phrase it — with before/after examples across fields and sample statements you can adapt.

What "proposed endeavor" actually means

USCIS draws a deliberate line between your occupation and your proposed endeavor. As of June 2026, the USCIS Policy Manual (Vol. 6, Part F, Ch. 5) puts it directly:

"The intended occupation is the one through which the person plans to advance the proposed endeavor, and the proposed endeavor is more specific than the general occupation. For example, in Matter of Dhanasar, the occupation was engineer while the endeavor was engaging in research and development relating to air and space propulsion systems."

So the occupation is the job category (engineer, research scientist, software developer, physician). The endeavor is the specific work you propose to do within that occupation — the projects, goals, and area you will actually advance in the United States. The Policy Manual is explicit that you should describe "the specific projects and goals, and the area of engineering in which the person will work, rather than simply listing the duties and responsibilities of an engineer."

That single sentence is the whole game. Most weak petitions describe an occupation and call it an endeavor.

Why officers anchor everything to the endeavor

The January 2025 guidance (PA-2025-03, effective immediately and applying to petitions pending or filed on or after Jan 15, 2025) reinforced that the officer evaluates the specific endeavor proposed, not the field in general. Two practical consequences:

The endeavor is the unit of analysis. When an officer assesses national importance, they look at "the national importance of the specific endeavor proposed by considering its potential prospective impact" — not whether the broad field matters. AI matters; "I work in AI" is not an endeavor.
Well positioned is measured against the endeavor. Prong 2 is not "are you impressive in the abstract" — it is whether your record positions you to advance this specific endeavor. A mismatch between a grand endeavor and a thin record sinks Prong 2.

Because of this, the endeavor is the lens an officer reads the entire file through. Your petition letter and every exhibit in your evidence strategy should map back to it.

Setting the altitude: not a job, not a field

The hardest part is calibration. There are three ways to miss:

Too vague (a whole field): "Advancing artificial intelligence." There is no specific work, no goal, nothing to evaluate. National importance cannot attach to an abstraction.
Too narrow (a single job): "Working as a senior ML engineer at Acme Corp on their recommendation engine." This reads as one job at one employer — exactly what the labor certification process exists to test. The Policy Manual warns that benefits flowing to a single employer do not, by themselves, establish national importance, and that a national labor shortage in your occupation does not, by itself, satisfy the test.
Just right (an evaluable line of work): "Developing and deploying machine-learning systems that detect fraud and intrusions in U.S. financial-payment infrastructure." Specific enough to evaluate national importance and to measure your fit; broad enough that the impact is not confined to one employer.

A useful test: could two different employers, or self-employment, plausibly advance the same endeavor? If yes, you are probably at the right altitude. If the endeavor evaporates the moment you change jobs, it is a job, not an endeavor.

USCIS also tells officers to "focus on the nature of the proposed endeavor, rather than only the geographic breadth," and notes an endeavor "may have national importance because it has national or even global implications within a particular field." So national importance is about prospective impact, not about claiming you will personally work in fifty states.

Worked before/after examples

Software / AI

Too vague: "Advance the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning."
Too narrow (= a job): "Work as a machine-learning engineer building my employer's ad-ranking model."
Just right: "Develop machine-learning methods for detecting financial fraud and securing U.S. payment systems, and disseminate the underlying techniques so other institutions can adopt them."

Biomedical research

Too vague: "Conduct cancer research."
Too narrow: "Run assays in Dr. X's lab on grant R01-XXXX."
Just right: "Develop and validate early-detection biomarkers for pancreatic cancer to enable screening of high-risk U.S. populations, advancing diagnosis where survival depends on early intervention."

Climate / energy

Too vague: "Help fight climate change with clean energy."
Too narrow: "Operate solar installations for my employer's regional projects."
Just right: "Develop grid-scale energy-storage chemistries that let the U.S. electric grid integrate higher shares of intermittent renewables, improving reliability and energy security."

Entrepreneurship

Too vague: "Build successful companies that create American jobs."
Too narrow: "Open a consulting firm serving clients in a national-priority field."
Just right: "Commercialize a domestically manufactured semiconductor-inspection tool that strengthens the U.S. chip supply chain, reducing reliance on foreign equipment."

Note the entrepreneurship cautions. PA-2025-03 states plainly that "broad assertions regarding general benefits to the economy and potential to create jobs will not establish an entrepreneur's qualification," and gives the specific example that opening "a consulting firm for those working or seeking to work in a nationally important occupation" does not establish national importance. The endeavor has to be the substantive thing the venture produces, not the act of starting a business.

Tying the endeavor to U.S. priorities

You strengthen Prong 1 by connecting your endeavor to documented national priorities. The Policy Manual gives STEM endeavors favorable treatment "especially in focused critical and emerging technologies or other STEM areas important to U.S. competitiveness or national security," and tells officers to consider "governmental, academic, and other authoritative and instructive sources."

Practically, that means anchoring your endeavor (where it genuinely fits) to sources such as the White House Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) List, agency strategy documents, or national security/competitiveness reports — and citing them. Honest fit matters: do not bolt "national security" onto unrelated work. A well-matched endeavor that lands on the CET list (AI, advanced semiconductors, biotechnology, advanced energy, quantum, advanced manufacturing, and similar) gives the officer a ready-made hook for national importance. Non-STEM endeavors can qualify too — the same considerations apply where you can demonstrate they are applicable.

How to phrase the statement and where it appears

The endeavor statement is usually one to three sentences that you state up front and then carry through the entire petition. A reliable structure:

"I propose to [specific work / projects + goal] within [area / occupation], in order to [concrete national-level impact]."

It appears, verbatim or near-verbatim, in several places:

First page of the petition letter, before any prong analysis, so the officer reads the rest through it.
The opening of each prong's argument ("Prong 1 — the proposed endeavor of [X] has national importance because…").
Echoed in your CV summary, business/research plan, and recommendation letters, so independent voices describe the same endeavor in their words.

Consistency is the point. If your letter, plan, and recommenders each describe a slightly different endeavor, the officer has no fixed target — and the case reads as unfocused.

Sample endeavor statements (adapt — not legal advice)

The following are illustrative templates to show altitude and phrasing. They are not legal advice and not pre-approved language; tailor every word to your actual record and goals, and consider review by a qualified immigration attorney.

Sample A — AI / cybersecurity. "I propose to develop and deploy machine-learning systems that detect financial fraud and cyber-intrusions across U.S. payment and banking infrastructure, and to publish the underlying detection methods so institutions nationwide can adopt them — strengthening the security and resilience of critical U.S. financial systems."

Sample B — Biomedical research. "I propose to develop and clinically validate early-detection biomarkers for pancreatic cancer, enabling routine screening of high-risk U.S. populations and improving survival in a disease where outcomes depend almost entirely on early diagnosis."

Sample C — Clean energy / advanced manufacturing. "I propose to develop grid-scale energy-storage technologies, manufactured domestically, that allow the U.S. electric grid to integrate higher shares of intermittent renewable generation — advancing grid reliability and national energy security."

Each names specific work, an area, and a national-level impact — and each could survive a change of employer.

Common mistakes

Endeavor = job title. "Senior data scientist" is an occupation, not an endeavor. Describe the work and goal.
Endeavor = my employer's mission. Tying the endeavor to one company's roadmap invites the "benefits a single employer" objection and weakens the case for waiving labor certification.
Purely local benefit. Impact confined to one city or one client base reads as a local matter, not a national one. Show national or field-wide implications.
Field, not endeavor. "I will advance [whole field]" gives the officer nothing specific to evaluate.
Endeavor outruns the record. An ambitious endeavor your CV cannot support fails Prong 2. Calibrate the endeavor to evidence you can actually show — see the evidence strategy guide.
Shifting target. Letter, plan, and recommenders each describe a different endeavor.

Checklist

Is your endeavor more specific than your occupation (projects, goals, area — not job duties)?
Could two different employers, or self-employment, advance the same endeavor? (If no, it's a job.)
Have you stated it in 1–3 sentences that appear up front in the petition letter?
Does it have national or field-wide prospective impact, not just local benefit?
Where it fits, is it tied to a documented U.S. priority (e.g., the CET list) with a citation?
Does your record actually support advancing this specific endeavor (Prong 2)?
Do your CV, plan, and recommendation letters describe the same endeavor?
Have you avoided "endeavor = job title," "= employer's mission," and "purely local benefit"?

Define the endeavor first, at the right altitude, and the three prongs line up behind it. Once it's set, build the exhibits that prove it with the EB2 NIW evidence strategy, and weave it through your petition letter and the broader Dhanasar framework.

Working on your own NIW? Draft your endeavor statement, run it through the checklist above, and pressure-test it against the before/after examples before you write a single exhibit.

This guide is general information, current as of June 2026, and is not legal advice. The authoritative source is the USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 6, Part F, Ch. 5 (uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-f-chapter-5) and PA-2025-03 (Jan 15, 2025). Consult a qualified immigration attorney for advice on your situation.