This is an AAO appeal decision — a case denied once and appealed. It shows how the framework is applied; it is not the filing population.
The Petitioner sought to use a jointly-owned company as a vehicle to provide logistics services to U.S. companies and to export goods from the United States to Brazil.
Field: logistics · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive
“the business plans predictions were effectively speculation that lacked an objective basis for the projections”
“Simple alignment or shared common aspects with the broader industry are not sufficient to meet the first prong's national importance requirement”
“instead of detailing how the proposed endeavor itself has national importance, he extensively discusses the national importance of the logistics industry”
“without demonstrating his projected job creation figures are more than hopeful speculation, he still hasn't sufficiently established the level of job creation”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- business plan · discounted
“the business plans predictions were effectively speculation that lacked an objective basis for the projections”
AAO decision text - recommendation letter · discounted
“the opinion letter mostly focused on the national importance of the logistics industry as a whole and not on the national importance of the proposed endeavor”
AAO decision text - contract revenue · discounted
“The Petitioner cannot meet his burden of proof simply by claiming a fact to be true, without adequate supporting evidence.”
AAO decision text - other · ignored
“it is unnecessary to consider the sufficiency of this new evidence submitted on appeal”
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 conducted independent factual investigation, citing external real-estate listing websites to challenge the plausibility of the Petitioner's claimed $100/month office lease, though it declined to make a finding on this point because the lease itself was not submitted. The decision explicitly frames each identified deficiency as an independent, alternative basis for dismissal.
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. 103.2(b)(1)
- 8 C.F.R. 103.2(b)(12)
- Flores v. Garland
- Matter of Izummi
- Matter of Katigbak
- Section 291 of the Act
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
Petitioner failed to establish national importance of his specific endeavor, instead relying on the logistics industry's general importance, with unsupported/speculative business plan projections.
Tie evidence and projections specifically to the proposed endeavor's own scale of impact, with documented methodology, not to the broader industry's importance.
vague
economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · geographic_or_shortage_area
person_focused
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