The Petitioner sought to work as CEO of his own company providing financial and international business consulting services to help small and medium-sized businesses expand into international markets, and to develop a free entrepreneurship training program for single mothers.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“does not sufficiently establish that the [Petitioner]'s proposed endeavor is of national importance”

“the record lacks evidence showing how such services will likely impact the field nationally or how the potential prospective impact has national implications within the field”

“merely working in an important area of the economy is insufficient to establish the national importance of the proposed endeavor”

“The Petitioner has not sufficiently demonstrated that RIMS II' s broad category of "Management Consulting Services Industry in Florida" properly captures the potential impact of his proposed endeavor”

“he has not specified how many jobs were created or shown that the level of job creation confirms the national importance of his proposed endeavor”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “the record lacks evidence showing how such services will likely impact the field nationally”

  AAO decision text
• recommendation letter · discounted

  “statements and evidence relating to his qualifications do not establish that his proposed endeavor satisfies the first prong”

  AAO decision text
• contract revenue · discounted

  “does not indicate that the business had pay any salaries or wages to, or had hired, any employees”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “he has not shown that general statistics on a broad category of economic activities confirms the national importance of his proposed endeavor”

  AAO decision text

Where this case turned

• Business plan speculative · p1 — projections without a documented basis or steps
• Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
• Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
• Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region

Notable

AAO expressly declines to reach prongs 2 and 3, treating prong 1 national importance failure as fully dispositive; cites RIMS II economic multiplier rejection as insufficiently tailored to the specific endeavor.

Authorities this decision leans on

From the doctrinal survivor set — 187 authority tests across 47 distinct authorities cleared the differential-lift gates. Only those appear here.

• 8 C.F.R. 103.3
• Flores v. Garland
• Matter of L-A-C-
• Poursina v. USCIS

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