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, who has long owned a construction company in Brazil, proposed to direct and oversee a new U.S. company providing construction equipment rental, installation, and sales of scaffolding and shoring equipment, initially targeting Florida with later planned expansion.
Field: civil engineering / construction equipment rental · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
EB-2 threshold — addressed
The Petitioner's Brazilian bachelor's degree plus over 20 years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience satisfied the advanced-degree equivalency requirement; engineering is a statutorily listed profession.
Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive
“But the record before us contains no Exhibit 9.”
“A divider in the record marked "Exhibit 9: Beneficiary's Proposed Endeavor" precedes a single blank page, followed immediately by Exhibit 10.”
“the evaluator cannot have examined and considered the August 2025 document submitted in response to the RFE.”
“SCOPS stated that the record "continues to tie the endeavor to Central Florida . . . . The proposal for an Alabama or Mississippi manufacturing facility remains entirely conjectural."”
“these figures do not show that his specific proposed endeavor ... will have a proportionate impact sufficient to show national importance”
“The record does not support this apparently new claim.”
“A petitioner may not make material changes to a petition that has already been filed in an effort to make an apparently deficient petition conform to USCIS requirements.”
“The Petitioner has not demonstrated that his proposed endeavor has national importance, or that any potential ripple effects can be reliably traced back to his actions alone”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- business plan · discounted
“the record before us contains no Exhibit 9”
AAO decision text - recommendation letter · discounted
“the Petitioner has not shown that letters from a small number of associates, attesting to client-centered impacts, should have comparable weight”
AAO decision text - resume experience · credited
- other · discounted
“these figures do not show that his specific proposed endeavor to provide certain support services ... will have a proportionate impact sufficient to show 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
- Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
- Material change of endeavor · p1 — the endeavor described on appeal is not the one filed
Notable
The decision highlights an anomaly in the record: the divider for 'Exhibit 9' (the business plan) precedes only a blank page, and the AAO notes the expert letter predates the actual business plan document by over a year, undermining its evidentiary basis. The AAO also rejects a new claim on appeal (expansion into Texas and North Carolina) as an impermissible material change under Matter of Izummi. Prongs 2 and 3 were expressly reserved as unnecessary to the outcome.
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. 103.3
- 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2)
- Flores v. Garland
- Matter of Izummi
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
Petitioner failed to substantiate that his specific endeavor's economic, safety, or downstream effects extended beyond individual clients to a national scale; missing Exhibit 9, shifting facts, and unsupported expansion claims undermined credibility.
Provide consistent, corroborated, endeavor-specific evidence (not industry-wide statistics or personal skill letters) tying scale of impact directly and traceably to national-level significance.
moderate
economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · geographic_or_shortage_area
person_focused
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