The NIW framework: three Dhanasar prongs
USCIS’s Administrative Appeals Office sets out the framework in Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884, 889 (AAO 2016). The three prongs are:
- The proposed endeavor has both substantial merit and national importance.
- The petitioner is well positioned to advance the proposed endeavor.
- On balance, it would be beneficial to the United States to waive the job-offer and labor-certification requirements.
EB-2 classification eligibility is a separate prerequisite; counsel should assess it before developing the waiver argument. See USCIS AAO, Dhanasar, page 886. This guide focuses on the business evidence and does not assess an individual’s eligibility.
We organize the commercial narrative around a specific undertaking: what the petitioner proposes to build or deliver, who experiences the underlying problem, how the work could reach those people or organizations, and what resources implementation requires. Simply describing a growing industry leaves those questions unanswered. A useful document follows the proposed activity from problem definition through execution, with evidence attached to material claims.
The three-prong framework gives the planning team an organizing reference. It does not turn a business writer into the legal decision-maker. We develop research, operating assumptions and a financial model that counsel can examine alongside the rest of the record. Counsel decides how to present the legal argument and whether the evidence supports it.
Where the business plan fits
A proposed-endeavor plan can serve as an evidence vehicle for the first prong and support the second. This is our document-design approach, not a separate USCIS checklist. The underlying source is USCIS AAO, Dhanasar, page 890, which identifies future-activity plans among the second-prong factors.
Start with a clear boundary between the company and the endeavor. A company description covers ownership, products, pricing and customers. The endeavor statement explains the particular work the petitioner intends to advance through that structure. The two should connect, but a legal entity’s existence does not explain the purpose or practical reach of the proposed work.
We recommend an evidence register alongside the narrative. For each significant assertion, record the source, publication date, relevant geography, method and any limitation. Distinguish a signed customer agreement from an exploratory conversation, a working prototype from a concept, and documented funding from a financing target. This makes the document easier to review and prevents aspirations from quietly becoming statements of fact.
The plan should also explain dependencies. A commercialization project may depend on access to intellectual property, a technical collaborator, external testing or additional capital. State who controls each dependency and what happens if it is delayed. A credible roadmap gives the reader a way to understand execution risk rather than hiding that risk behind optimistic language.
Market research, problem landscape and impact
The market chapter starts with the problem landscape. Define the affected user, the current alternative, the cost or friction created by that alternative, and the reason the proposed solution could help. Use research that actually matches the offering and customer segment. National industry totals are background context; they do not establish demand for a specific product or service.
Use TAM, SAM and SOM to make the opportunity progressively more concrete. TAM describes the total addressable market; SAM narrows it to the serviceable available market; SOM estimates a realistically obtainable share. Our business-plan glossary explains these terms, and the TAM, SAM and SOM guide shows how to develop the boundaries. Each estimate needs a date, source and method.
For the obtainable share, build from execution capacity: sales channels, conversion assumptions, delivery hours, production capacity and customer retention. Cross-check the resulting sales forecast against the serviceable market. A small venture can describe a large problem while making restrained commercial assumptions. The model should explain how the venture expects to reach its own customers.
Discuss impact through an explicit chain of activities and intended effects. Explain what will be delivered, who could adopt it, what would change for those users, and how that change could be observed. Distinguish measurable outputs, such as completed deployments, from longer-term effects that depend on adoption and external conditions. Avoid presenting projected benefits as already achieved.
Our Canadian business-plan benchmarks study provides additional planning context. Its Canadian setting must remain visible; it is not evidence of U.S. market demand or an NIW legal standard. U.S. commercial assumptions should be supported by research appropriate to the actual endeavor.
Anatomy of a proposed-endeavor plan
Executive summary framed around the endeavor
Open with a precise statement of the intended work, target users, problem and delivery mechanism. Summarize the proposed business model, implementation stage, principal resources and financial assumptions. Write the summary after the supporting chapters so it reflects the same scope, dates and definitions. A concise summary helps the reviewer locate the evidence behind each major statement.
Founder and petitioner positioning
Organize the petitioner’s credentials and track record by relevance to the actual tasks ahead. Connect technical education to product development, management experience to execution, and sector relationships to customer discovery where the records support those connections. Use documented roles, work products and achievements. Separate an individual’s contribution from a team’s broader achievement and identify the underlying records for counsel’s review.
This chapter is an evidence structure, not a prediction of a favorable decision. A biography becomes more useful when it explains why a particular experience matters to a particular milestone. Address capability gaps plainly, including roles that may require a collaborator, employee or outside adviser. The staffing plan and budget should reflect those gaps rather than assuming the petitioner can perform every function.
Market and impact analysis
Bring the problem research, competitive alternatives, customer segmentation and intended effects together. Explain what differentiates the offering in practical terms. Attach source references close to the claims they support. If the proposed work changes during research, revise the executive summary and financial drivers as well; the document needs one consistent endeavor throughout.
Venture structure and implementation
Describe the proposed entity, ownership, operating location, delivery model, intellectual-property access and third-party relationships, using the actual status of each item. Record intended arrangements as proposed. Include responsibilities, staffing triggers, procurement needs and practical dependencies. A reader should be able to follow how resources become activities and how activities lead to deliverables.
Financial model and supporting schedules
Connect revenue to pricing, customer acquisition and capacity. Explain payroll, contractor costs, overhead, working capital, capital expenditures and financing assumptions. Include a clear assumptions register and scenario analysis. All forward-looking financial figures are illustrative projections, dependent on stated assumptions; they are not promises of revenue, funding or petition outcomes.
A dated roadmap with accountable milestones
Use actual calendar dates once a project schedule has been agreed. For each milestone, specify the intended deliverable, responsible person, budget dependency and evidence that would show completion. Distinguish an internal target from a contractual commitment. Hiring should follow operational need and available funding, with responsibilities described before headcount is projected.
The following schedule is an illustrative planning example only, not a client project, immigration timeline or commitment. All budget figures are illustrative and stated in U.S. dollars. Actual dates and costs must be established through the engagement and reviewed against the venture’s circumstances.
| Illustrative target date | Deliverable | Owner and completion record | Illustrative budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 31, 2027 | Complete customer-discovery research | Founder; documented interview findings | $5,000 |
| April 30, 2027 | Complete prototype testing | Technical lead; dated test report | $25,000 |
| September 30, 2027 | Evaluate initial deployment | Founder; adoption and cost review | $20,000 |
A roadmap also needs decision points. Explain what the team would do if testing identifies a material defect, acquisition costs exceed the base case or funding arrives later than expected. These are business-management choices. Show how a revised launch date would flow through staffing, spending and cash requirements so the schedule and financial model remain aligned.
Three-to-five-year illustrative financial projections
Our recommended planning scope is three to five years, with more detailed monthly cash flow for the initial operating period where useful. This is a service recommendation, not a stated USCIS minimum. The appropriate horizon depends on the development cycle, capital needs, available evidence and counsel’s document scope. A research commercialization venture may need a different model from a professional consulting practice.
Prepare an income statement, cash-flow forecast and projected balance sheet together with a sources-and-uses schedule. Include an assumptions register explaining prices, customer volumes, sales cycles, payment timing, direct costs and staffing. Financing should show what is documented and what remains a target. An uncommitted investment must not appear as cash already available.
For an illustrative financial example only, suppose an endeavor projects 10 customers at an illustrative annual price of $12,000. That produces illustrative annual revenue of $120,000 before any adjustment for start dates, churn or collection timing. If the illustrative direct delivery cost is $3,000 per customer, illustrative gross profit is $90,000 before overhead. These figures are invented solely to demonstrate the calculation and describe no actual client or expected result.
The next step is to model when those illustrative customers start and pay. Annualized revenue is different from revenue earned during a partial year, and both can differ from cash received. Include deposits, receivables, supplier terms and tax assumptions where applicable. Explain who will validate accounting and tax treatment rather than quietly embedding uncertain treatments in the spreadsheet.
Test slower acquisition, a delayed launch and higher delivery costs. Describe what changes in each scenario and how much illustrative funding would be needed to maintain operations. All forecast financial amounts, rates and financial scenarios must be labelled illustrative. Historical figures, if supplied, should remain separately identified as historical and tied to their source records.
Consistency with expert letters and supporting records
Expert letters can accompany the plan. The official decision discusses such letters in its evidentiary record: USCIS AAO, Dhanasar, page 892. The plan and letters should use consistent descriptions of the proposed work, petitioner’s role and existing progress.
We recommend giving counsel a reconciliation sheet containing the endeavor statement, company names, product terminology, key dates and document versions. A letter describing research activities should not be paired with a plan that silently changes the core endeavor into an unrelated sales business. Where different documents discuss different stages of the work, explain the relationship clearly.
Letter writers should describe what they can substantiate from their expertise or direct knowledge. Business-plan preparation does not create an expert endorsement, and a drafting team should never invent a relationship or statement on someone else’s behalf. Counsel coordinates legal use of the letters. Our role is to identify commercial inconsistencies and keep the financial and operating narrative aligned with documented facts.
Who this planning service serves
We prepare venture-focused documents for founders, researchers commercializing their work, consultants and professionals whose proposed endeavor has a business or operating structure. An engagement may begin before launch or after initial operations have started. The starting point is the work itself, the evidence already available and the questions the business document needs to answer.
For founders, the emphasis may be a coherent route from product development to customer adoption. For researchers, it may be commercialization responsibilities, access to intellectual property and the resources needed to translate work into use. For consultants, the document may need a precise service methodology, delivery capacity and evidence distinguishing the offering from a broad professional biography.
We also work with the licensed U.S. immigration attorneys who prepare legal filings. Counsel can define the legal scope, identify questions requiring supporting records and review consistency with the petition. We provide a business narrative, research and financial model within that scope. A business-planning engagement does not determine whether an individual should file an NIW petition.
Process and Atul Jagga’s credentials
The Biz Plans is founder-led. Atul Jagga is a CPA (Ontario) and a licensed Canadian immigration consultant, RCIC-IRB, licence R711106. His financial background informs the model, assumptions review and commercial narrative. These credentials are stated factually and do not imply U.S. legal authorization or a particular immigration result. See our about and credentials page.
- Define the scope: review the endeavor description, stage, existing records and counsel’s requested business-document scope.
- Collect evidence: assemble the petitioner’s relevant background, market sources, operational records and financing assumptions, identifying gaps early.
- Build the model: connect delivery capacity, staffing, revenue assumptions and cash requirements, with all forecast figures labelled illustrative.
- Draft and reconcile: align the narrative, roadmap, schedules and supporting-document references; send business questions and inconsistencies for clarification.
- Review and deliver: incorporate agreed factual corrections and counsel’s scope feedback, then provide a dated document and supporting financial schedules.
Before contacting us, assemble a short description of the endeavor, your current operating status, relevant credentials, available market evidence and any existing model. You can use our free business-plan generator to organize an initial business outline. Its output needs fact-checking and appropriate professional review before use in a legal context.
To discuss a defined engagement, submit a project brief or review our pricing approach. Delivery scope and commercial terms are confirmed for the actual project; this page makes no processing-time or outcome claim.
Business planning and U.S. legal representation
The Biz Plans prepares business plans and financial projections. It is not a U.S. law firm. Atul Jagga’s RCIC-IRB licence is a Canadian licence.
An NIW petition is a legal filing. Our service requires you to work with licensed U.S. immigration counsel for legal assessment, advice and filing strategy. Our service does not include U.S. legal representation. No plan can guarantee a waiver outcome.
This is our service requirement; it is not a claim that U.S. law universally mandates representation. Engage licensed U.S. immigration counsel to assess your circumstances and current filing requirements. Our business-planning work supplies commercial analysis for that professional review.
EB-2 NIW business-plan FAQs
Is a business plan required for an EB-2 NIW?
The verified Dhanasar decision does not prescribe a mandated business-plan form. We use an endeavor plan to organize the business evidence; do not treat it as a universal filing requirement. USCIS AAO’s Matter of Dhanasar, page 890, recognizes a model or plan for future activities among the second-prong factors. Counsel should determine the appropriate documents for your case. USCIS AAO, Matter of Dhanasar.
What should an EB-2 NIW business plan include?
Our recommended structure includes an endeavor summary, relevant petitioner evidence, market and impact research, venture structure, implementation milestones, staffing, risks and illustrative financial projections. Source material and assumptions should be traceable, and the plan should be consistent with supporting records and counsel’s scope.
How does the plan address the Dhanasar prongs?
Organize the endeavor and impact evidence for prong one, and connect the petitioner’s documented experience and resources to execution for prong two. Counsel develops the third-prong legal argument. The controlling three-prong framework is stated by USCIS AAO in Matter of Dhanasar, page 889; a plan alone does not establish that a petition meets it. USCIS AAO, Matter of Dhanasar.
How long should projections run, and what financials are expected?
We recommend three to five years, with initial monthly cash flow where useful. This is a planning recommendation, not a USCIS minimum. Include illustrative income statements, cash flow, balance sheets, funding uses, assumptions and scenarios, tailored to the business and counsel’s scope.
Can a pre-revenue or not-yet-launched endeavor be planned credibly?
Yes, as a business-planning exercise. Document what exists, identify what is proposed, and connect milestones to available resources and illustrative funding needs. Use transparent assumptions and test delays. Business-planning credibility is separate from legal eligibility, which licensed U.S. immigration counsel must assess.
Related planning resources and official source
Explore the separate E-2 visa business-plan guide and L-1 visa business-plan and new-office guide. Your U.S. attorney should assess the appropriate legal pathway.
Return to our immigration business-plan hub for the existing Canadian resources and U.S. planning guide. For supporting commercial work, see our financial modelling service, glossary and business-plan review service.
Official source verified October 26, 2026: USCIS Administrative Appeals Office, Matter of Dhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884 (AAO 2016), hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Relevant passages: page 886 (classification prerequisite), page 889 (three prongs), page 890 (future-activity plans), and page 892 (expert letters in the record). Planning structures and financial horizons on this page are our recommendations.