Immigration law firm Colombo and Hurd has secured approval of an EB-2 National Interest Waiver petition for an agricultural engineer from Colombia specialising in pesticide application.
The petition was approved by USCIS without a Request for Evidence, a significant outcome that reflects the strength of the legal strategy used to support the application.
The engineer’s career spans nearly 50 years and centres on the calibration and operation of aerial and ground spraying equipment used in large-scale agricultural operations.
His proposed endeavour in the United States is to improve how American farms raise the amount and quality of what they produce while reducing the impact on air, water, soil, and wildlife.
The case rested on connecting the engineer’s highly specialised expertise to national priorities already recognised by federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Agriculture.
The United States uses approximately one billion pounds of pesticides each year to protect crops from weeds, insects, and disease, supporting a farm and food economy the USDA values at roughly 1.5 trillion dollars annually.
The engineer’s methods at a large banana producer helped control Black Sigatoka, a leaf disease threatening banana crops, across approximately 49,000 acres of farmland.
He also wrote a manual on application techniques published by a major crop-science company, trained pilots and technicians across several countries, and received an award from a professional association of agricultural engineers.
His peers described him as one of the very few specialists trusted to certify that both aerial and ground spraying equipment is operating correctly, a distinction held by very few professionals in the field.
The Colombo and Hurd legal team documented that his recommendations sharply reduced complaints from neighbouring communities about chemicals drifting onto nearby land, demonstrating tangible practical impact.
Rather than relying on academic publications or patents, the petition built eligibility on the engineer’s documented field experience, his record of training others, and the direct relevance of his work to shared national concerns.
The legal strategy connected his proposed work to federal priorities including the EPA’s efforts to limit farm runoff, the USDA’s promotion of integrated pest management, and trade rules on pesticide residue affecting American export markets.
Colleagues who had worked directly with the engineer provided testimony confirming the precision and effectiveness of his methods across multiple agricultural settings and countries.
The approval demonstrates that EB-2 NIW petitions can succeed without a conventional academic profile, provided the applicant’s practical expertise is clearly linked to areas of demonstrated national importance.