Two years after NIW/ self sponsorship was accepted. Can I change field of work?

[yiannis]

Hello and thank for taking the time to read my post.

Two years we successfully (my lawyer and I) argued that working on my scientific field of cancer research (lab research 100%) was to the national interest of the US. My LPR status was granted based on an NIW self petition. Now I want to change fields and become either a scientific patent examiner, or a scientific journal editor. Is this allowed? I retrieved an email from my then lawyer stating that:

You can choose to work part time in another field if you want as long as you work at least 40 hours per week in the filed [sic] that was the basis of the National Interest Waiver.

Any comments and recommendations would be helpful.

Thanks again,
Yiannis

 

[CalGreenCard]

Two years we successfully (my lawyer and I) argued that working on my scientific field of cancer research (lab research 100%) was to the national interest of the US. My LPR status was granted based on an NIW self petition. Now I want to change fields and become either a scientific patent examiner, or a scientific journal editor. Is this allowed? I retrieved an email from my then lawyer stating that:

I think your ex-lawyer is being ridiculously over-conservative. The whole point of getting a green card is to have freedom to make the professional and personal decisions that are right for you in the USA, without having to worry about continually seeking approval from attorneys and gov't agencies. It's good, if possible, to stick with the sponsoring employer (or the self-sponsored field in an NIW or EB1 case) for a little while to avoid any suspicion that the GC wasn't obtained in good faith. But the time threshold is usually advised to be 6 months - 1 year. To still be worried about such issues after 2 years, though, is IMHO pretty extreme.

I'm guessing, also, that the career change for you will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary--that is, you will probably still see plenty of patents and/or papers related to cancer research in your new role(s), even if you gradually evolve in a different direction. The whole point of a GC is to have the freedom to pursue such new career directions--if people didn't have this freedom they would have no need to come to the USA.

Now, if your lawyer advised you against making a radical career shift the very next day after getting GC--that might make sense. But after 2 years you should be more than safe IMHO.