Visa question of the month - NIE validity

A few weeks ago, a fitter from our company had to travel to the USA to commission a plant sold by us on site at the customer (food industry). At that time, we had successfully applied for an exemption (NIE) and also received approval from the US Consulate Berlin on May 15, 2021 - but only for a one-time entry with ESTA. The employee now urgently needs to travel to the USA again for a start-up, but to another customer project (also in the food industry). Do we need to submit a new NIE application or how do we proceed?

Unfortunately the Travel Ban remains in force for certain countries (including the Schengen area) and will remain in force until further notice. This travel restriction prohibits all persons from entering the US who have been in Germany for 14 days prior to their planned entry into the US. Only US citizens, green card holders and their close family members are generally exempt from the travel ban. All other travelers still need a so-called National Interest Exception (NIE; exemption), which can be applied for by e-mail request to the U.S. consulates in Germany.
Until recently, these NIEs entitled the holder to a single entry within 30 days from the date of approval. In July 2021, a change was made in this regard. From now on, all NIEs will be issued for 12 months and entitle the NIE holder to multiple entries within this period. However, for the same purpose of stay as stated in the original application.

This regulation also applies retroactively to all issued NIEs. I.e., if your fitter was issued an NIE on May 15, 2021, it is now (retroactively) valid until May 15, 2022. Can therefore be used for (multiple) trips until this date, provided the Travel Ban then still exists. You do not need to contact the U.S. consulate again, this is automatically stored in the system by the U.S. authorities. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend that you keep a hard copy of the original e-mail confirmation with you when you travel again.

Consequently, there is no need to file a new NIE application for this assembler. However, you should urgently consider the other aspects:

1. The issued NIE is passport-bound. This means that if the employee has received a new passport in the meantime or would like to enter the US with a different (second) passport that was not specified in the original NIE application, a new NIE application must actually be submitted.
2. However, the issued NIE is not ESTA-bound. I.e., if an ESTA authorization has to be renewed for the identical passport with which the NIE application was submitted, no new NIE application has to be submitted.
3. The re-entry within the 12-month period must, as mentioned above, serve the same purpose of stay as stated in the originally submitted NIE application. However, it does not have to be for the identical reason for travel, but again in connection with (as presumably in your case) "vital support for US critical infrastructure" are available. This means that the installer can also enter the USA with this NIE in order to carry out commissioning work for other customers in the "critical infrastructure" sector. This means that it does not have to be exactly the same customer project as in the original application. Purely private use of the NIE (e.g. as part of a vacation trip to the USA) is of course excluded.