Draft National Interest Exceptions (NIEs) Faster—Without Going Ad Hoc

Visalaw Team • 2026-01-26

When NIE demand spikes, ad hoc drafting breaks down. See how immigration firms use Visalaw to produce consistent, attorney-ready National Interest Exception drafts—fast.

Visalaw AI is committed to helping immigration lawyers meet new challenges with speed and accuracy. We have built this process to handle what’s coming next without reinventing the wheel every time.

Wednesday, February 4th, we’re hosting a live product walkthrough showing:

H-1B $100K Fee NIE drafting workflow
Country Ban NIE drafting workflow
How teams can standardize and scale NIE output

Want to see how it works in practice? Join the live walkthrough (Feb 4 at 12 pm CT)

National Interest Exceptions (NIEs) are becoming operational reality. When travel restrictions tighten, NIEs quickly shift from occasional emergencies to high-volume, high-stakes work, often with urgent timelines, discretionary outcomes, and clients who can’t wait.

We have identified that most firms still handle NIEs the same way: Old templates, frantic last-minute drafting, and inconsistent narratives depending on who’s writing that day.

That’s exactly the kind of process that breaks under pressure.

Introducing: NIE Drafting Workflows in Visalaw

Today, we’re announcing new NIE drafting capabilities designed specifically for immigration practice, starting with:

H-1B $100k Fee National Interest Exceptions (NIE)
Travel Ban National Interest Exceptions (NIE)

These workflows generate structured, attorney-ready first drafts so your team can move faster while staying consistent in how you frame the case.

See the NIE drafting workflow in action

As H-1B National Interest Exceptions become more common, immigration teams need a way to draft NIEs that is fast, consistent, and reviewable.

In the video below, we walk through how Visalaw’s NIE drafting workflow works end-to-end from uploading documents to reviewing exhibits and finalizing the draft.

This workflow was built by immigration lawyers to support real firm review processes, not one-click drafting.

Access the Loom Recording Here: Mastering H1B NIE Drafting with Visalaw's Innovative Workflow 🚀

Why this matters

NIEs sit at the intersection of three realities immigration teams know too well:

The stakes are high These cases affect business continuity, critical travel, and real human outcomes.
The process is discretionary and inconsistent Success depends heavily on how the facts are framed and supported, especially under restrictive policies.
The demand spikes fast When policy shifts, firms get flooded. And “ad hoc drafting” turns into bottlenecks, rewrites, and burnout.

Visalaw AI's NIE workflows are built to help firms handle that reality with a process you can rely on.

What you can expect from the NIE drafts

Each NIE workflow is designed to help your team:

Start with a clear, professional structure using your company's own templates or using Visalaw's tested default structure
Keep the narrative tightly focused on national interest and supportable facts
Produce drafts that are easier to review, revise, and standardize firm-wide

The Hidden Cost of “Ad Hoc” NIE Drafting

Most firms never calculate the real cost of handling NIEs manually—but everyone feels it.

It shows up as:

Senior attorneys rewriting the same arguments across multiple cases
Multiple versions of “basically the same” NIE circulating internally
Review bottlenecks when volume spikes
Associates spending hours figuring out how to say something instead of applying the law

The result isn’t just slower turnaround. It’s wasted senior time, inconsistent narratives, and burnout during the exact moments firms need to be sharp.

Standardization Is What Protects Quality Under Pressure

When NIEs are discretionary, framing matters. When framing matters, consistency matters even more.

Visalaw’s NIE workflows are designed to help firms:

Enforce a consistent national-interest narrative across cases
Preserve institutional knowledge instead of losing it to inboxes
Make review faster because drafts follow a familiar structure every time

Next steps

We’re also doing something we believe will matter a lot in the year ahead:

We are offering unlimited NIE Drafting with Pro Plan in 2026.

Meaning: NIEs won’t count toward your 10 uses per month.

When NIEs surge, firms shouldn’t have to think about marginal cost or ration quality. This is about removing friction so teams can do the work the right way, every time. If your firm expects to handle a meaningful volume of NIEs, this is one of the best times to move to Pro.

If NIEs are likely to be a meaningful part of your practice in the year ahead, this is a strategic moment to lock in capacity—not chase workarounds later.

Join the live walkthrough (Feb 4)

Want to see how it works in practice?

On Wednesday, February 4, we’re hosting a live product walkthrough showing:

H-1B NIE drafting workflow
Travel Ban NIE drafting workflow
How teams can standardize and scale NIE output

This week: daily demos + practical NIE breakdowns

All week we’ll be sharing short demos and practical breakdowns of each NIE type—so you can see exactly how the workflow applies in real cases.

If NIEs are about to become a bigger part of your practice, you don’t need more improvisation. You need a repeatable workflow.

Book a demo

The best way to assess if Visalaw AI is right for you is to sit down with our team of experts who can guide you through the ways that Visalaw AI works in your existing systems.