dismissedAUG272024_04B52032024-08-27 · appeal · Texas Service Center

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 establish an early childhood Christian education services firm headquartered in Massachusetts with additional business units in Rhode Island and Connecticut, projecting job creation and economic benefits in those states.

Field: early childhood education · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

EB-2 threshold — not met

AAO found the foreign Titulo de Licenciada was not shown to be a four-year (bachelor's-equivalent) program per EDGE and the transcript, the submitted evaluation was inconsistent and unexplained, and the petitioner failed to show five years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience under 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2).

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“these projections are not supported by details showing their basis, nor do they sufficiently demonstrate a significant potential to either employ U.S. workers or to substantially impact the regional or national economy.”

“the Petitioner has not provided corroborating evidence to support her claims.”

“such a shortage is not, in and of itself, sufficient to establish the national importance of the Petitioner's endeavor.”

“the Petitioner has not established how providing her educational services stands to sufficiently extend beyond her prospective students to impact the field more broadly at a level commensurate with national importance.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

business plan · discounted
“these projections are not supported by details showing their basis”
AAO decision text
degree · discounted
“we may discount or give less weight to that evaluation”
AAO decision text
resume experience · discounted
“the Petitioner has not established that she has five years of progressive experience in the specialty”
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
Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
Occupational shortage argument rejected · p1 — argues a labor shortage — the labor-certification question, not Dhanasar

1,312coded decisions carry the failure named in this record. A placement shows where your profile sits among them, not what it predicts.See where your profile sits — 90 seconds →

Notable

The AAO first reversed the Director's favorable threshold finding on advanced-degree status (citing degree-length discrepancies and an inconsistent academic evaluation) but then proceeded to analyze and dismiss on Dhanasar prong 1 as the dispositive basis, expressly declining to reach the reversed threshold or remaining prongs. The decision inconsistently refers to the petitioner using both 'she' and, once, 'her' business alongside earlier male pronoun usage inherited from a template, an apparent drafting/OCR artifact.

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
8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2)
Flores v. Garland
Matter of L-A-C-

What this case teaches

Analyst reading of the decision text.

Decisive factor

Petitioner failed to substantiate national importance: business plan job/revenue projections lacked supporting detail, and claims of regional distress or field-wide educational impact were uncorroborated.

Transferable lesson

Support economic and field-impact projections with verifiable data (market studies, regional statistics, expert corroboration), not self-generated business-plan estimates alone.

Endeavor framing

moderate

National-importance theory

economic_job_creation · field_advancement · geographic_or_shortage_area

Evidence targeting

endeavor_focused

Cases in adjacent profiles

← Back to the case explorer