NIW Bearings
dismissedFEB102025_03B52032025-02-10 · combined · 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.

Not discussed; the decision resolves a procedural dispute over appeal brief filing and does not reach the merits of the proposed endeavor.

Read the decision (uscis.gov)

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Notable

The decision does not reach any NIW substantive prong. The Director denied the underlying I-140 on both advanced-degree eligibility and NIW grounds, but the AAO's prior summary dismissal of the appeal (for failure to identify legal/factual error and failure to timely submit a brief to the AAO) was upheld on combined motions. The Petitioner argued he had timely mailed his appeal brief, but the AAO found he sent it to the USCIS Phoenix Lockbox address (per initial-filing instructions) rather than directly to the AAO as required for post-filing briefs, so the brief never reached the AAO and the summary dismissal stood. No merits analysis of threshold EB-2 or the NIW prongs occurs in this decision.

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. 103.5(a)(1)(ii)
  • 8 C.F.R. 103.5(a)(2)
  • 8 C.F.R. 103.5(a)(3)
  • 8 C.F.R. 103.5(a)(4)
  • Matter of Coelho

Cases in adjacent profiles