The Petitioner, a swimming/sports coach, proposed to continue working as a coach in the U.S. and to open a 'Coordination and High-Level Training Center' offering youth sports training and development, potentially leading to competitive swimming coaching.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the Petitioner has not shown her proposed endeavor in this case stands to sufficiently extend beyond her trainees, students, and sports clients to impact the industry more broadly than her specific programs.”

“the record does not include sufficient information or evidence regarding any projected tax revenue or job growth attributable to her proposed training center.”

“A projected shortage of school sports coaches in the United States does not render the work of an individual coach nationally important under the Dhanasar framework.”

“she has not presented sufficient information and evidence to demonstrate that the prospective impact of her proposed endeavor rises to the level of national importance.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• degree · credited
• resume experience · credited
• business plan · discounted

  “she has not presented sufficient information and evidence to demonstrate that the prospective impact of her proposed endeavor rises to the level of national importance”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “these documents help show the merit of the Petitioner's proposed work, they are not sufficient to demonstrate the national importance of any particular coaching program”

  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

Notable

AAO used a footnote to explicitly reject a labor-shortage argument, stating shortages are addressed through the labor certification process rather than the NIW national-importance analysis; NYSDOT is cited only as the vacated prior precedent, not applied as the operative framework.

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. 204.5(k)(2)
• INA 203(b)(2)

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