NIW Bearings
dismissedDEC302025_01B52032025-12-30 · appeal

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 continue working for her employer developing, marketing, and promoting a 'contractual beekeeping' business model for bee-derived immune-boosting and supplement products in the United States.

Field: advertising, marketing and promotion of bee/beekeeping products · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

EB-2 threshold — addressed

AAO withdrew SCOPS' erroneous finding that two foreign bachelor's degrees qualify as an advanced degree, noting SCOPS never assessed degree equivalency or five years of progressive experience, but did not itself resolve the threshold question since the appeal was dismissed on prong 1.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“This logistical strategy appears to benefit the Petitioner's employer, the beekeepers who supply it, and its business partners and customers, but the record does not establish how the proposed endeavor may have national or even global implications”
“the business plan in the record contains contradictory, arbitrary, and unsubstantiated financial information that ... undermines both the business plan's reliability and sufficiency”
“the plan does not substantiate these figures”
“generalized publications that address the industry, field, or profession implicated by the proposed endeavor do not inform how the specific endeavor the Petitioner proposes to undertake may have national importance”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “we may give an opinion less weight if it is not in accord with other information in the record or if it is in any way questionable”
    AAO decision text
  • business plan · discounted
    “the business plan in the record contains contradictory, arbitrary, and unsubstantiated financial information”
    AAO decision text
  • degree · discounted
    “a second bachelor's degree is not a degree above that of a bachelor's degree”
    AAO decision text
  • media · discounted
    “generalized publications that address the industry, field, or profession implicated by the proposed endeavor do not inform how the specific endeavor ... may have national importance”
    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
  • Employer-specific benefit · p1 — "work furthers my company's product" — value accrues to one firm
  • Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
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Notable

AAO found SCOPS erred in its threshold advanced-degree analysis (treating a second foreign bachelor's degree as an 'advanced degree') but did not need to resolve this because the appeal failed on prong 1. AAO also rejected two procedural arguments as harmless: a postmark/denial-date discrepancy claim and an anecdotal argument about broader SCOPS/AAO denial trends in NIW cases.

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 Ho
  • Matter of L-A-C-
  • Matter of O-R-E-

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