The Petitioner sought to serve as head bookkeeper and tax preparer for his own Massachusetts-based accounting, bookkeeping, and tax preparation firm serving American, Brazilian, and Hispanic clients, with plans to expand offices to Florida and Georgia.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“The employment of up to 18 people does not demonstrate significant potential to employ United States workers, even ifthe Petitioner's company operates in an economically depressed area.”

“The company's projected net profit and tax payments also do not establish that the company would have substantial positive economic effects on a level commensurate with national importance”

“they do not address his specific proposed endeavor or indicate that it would extend beyond his company to impact the accounting field more broadly”

“our assessment of national importance does not focus on the importance of issues affecting a field or our nation in general”

“Without specifically identifying a matter that a government entity has described as having national importance or is the subject ofnational initiatives, the Petitioner has not demonstrated that his proposed endeavor would align with such a matter”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “does not demonstrate significant potential to employ United States workers”

  AAO decision text
• recommendation letter · discounted

  “do not specify how the Petitioner's work would extend beyond his company to impact the accounting field more broadly”

  AAO decision text
• degree · credited
• resume experience · credited

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
• Letters conclusory · p1 — letters praise skills in general terms without tracing specific impact
• Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region

Notable

AAO explicitly rejected the Petitioner's 'financial literacy' and 'circular economy' societal-welfare arguments as reaching only individual clients rather than the field or economy broadly, and rejected reliance on generalized statements about the accounting industry's national importance rather than 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.

• Flores v. Garland
• Matter of L-A-C-

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