What is Merit Evaluation
Immigration Merit Evaluation is the process of understanding a person’s profile against the legal standards in the USCIS Policy Manual.
In terms of Immigration, Merit Evaluation is the process of understanding a person’s profile against the legal standards in the USCIS Policy Manual.
Every immigration category has rules, criteria, and interpretation notes that adjudicators rely on. These rules evolve, and the most recent updates show how important it is to bring clarity to each case.
For EB-2 NIW, USCIS updated its policy manual in January 2025. The update tried to clarify how officers evaluate national interest waivers, but it still leaves many questions open. It explains the legal prongs but gives examples that do not always match the work of people in technology or entrepreneurship. Officers are told that not every venture qualifies as nationally important. The responsibility remains on applicants to show why their work matters.
how officers evaluate EB-2 petitions
For EB-1 Extraordinary Ability, the October 2024 update added clearer examples for evidence such as team awards, publications, exhibitions, and comparable evidence. It also corrected mistakes that officers often made when applying the law. The update reminds adjudicators to look at the totality of the record and explain exactly why something does or does not meet the standard.
USCIS updated the EB-1 “extraordinary ability” chapter
For O-1, the manual reinforces the same idea. Meeting the listed evidence items is not enough by itself. Officers still analyze whether the person has sustained acclaim and is within a small percentage at the top of the field.
The O-1 chapter in the Policy Manual
From these updates, we learn that USCIS naturally views people through broad profile types: business, scholars, researchers, artists, and athletes. Out of the ten criteria, only about five typically fit strongly for each profile type, and two to three criteria carry the most impact.
This is why Meritocrat gives attorneys a flexible workspace to organize criteria into high impact, medium impact, and low impact areas. The USCIS criteria stay the same, but attorneys can shape categories and subcategories to match the realities of each niche field they handle. For example, “Original Contribution” stays as a legal criterion, but attorneys can break it into practical segments like innovation, influence, project responsibility, or industry adoption.
Inside each category, attorneys set the scoring rules. When a candidate answers the questions, the system generates a detailed evaluation report. This first report helps with case strategy, evidence planning, and explaining the profile to clients. At the same time, the document organizer automatically creates folders based on the answers. If a folder remains empty, the attorney can clearly spot evidence gaps.
Merit Evaluation is important for anyone in the immigration process. It gives clarity before drafting begins, supports educated conversations with attorneys, and helps build strong cases that align with the policy manual and real world standards.