The petitioner sought to build on his construction experience to design innovative, affordable, and disaster-resilient housing (e.g., using recycled cargo containers) to reduce homelessness in the United States.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the relevant question is not the importance of the industry, field, or profession in which an individual will work; instead, to assess national importance, we focus on the "specific endeavor that the [noncitizen] proposes to undertake."”

“These articles and reports do not discuss the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor, do not help demonstrate the potential prospective impact of the endeavor on the problem of housing affordability and homelessness”

“the Director concluded that the Petitioner did not demonstrate the potential economic benefits of the proposed endeavor, noting that the Petitioner did not submit a detailed business plan or other sufficient evidence”

“the evidence relating occupational shortages in the field did not, by itself, demonstrate the potential impact of the proposed endeavor.”

“While these letters may be helpful in showing that the Petitioner is respected by his colleagues, they do not sufficiently analyze the proposed endeavor or offer evidence of its potential impact.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “did not submit a detailed business plan, sufficient information, or evidence to illustrate the number of individuals he plans to hire, train and support”

  AAO decision text
• media · discounted

  “this evidence relates only to the housing and construction sector in general and not the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor”

  AAO decision text
• recommendation letter · discounted

  “they do not sufficiently analyze the proposed endeavor or offer evidence of its potential impact”

  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
• Endeavor too vague · p1 — described as a job role, not a defined undertaking
• Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
• 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

Petitioner argued the Director abused discretion by considering absence of a business plan under prong 1 rather than prong 2, and by allegedly failing to consider all evidence; AAO rejected both arguments, agreeing business plans are more properly a prong 2 consideration but finding no error since the Director used it only to assess economic benefits under prong 1. AAO cited several federal circuit and district court cases on the duty to consider evidence.

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
• Buletini v. INS
• Matter of L-A-C-
• Poursina v. USCIS

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