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, a nurse with over ten years of experience, proposed to provide high-quality, personalized nursing services and teach at health education institutions at general healthcare institutions in the U.S., specifically Florida.
Field: nursing · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive
“The Director determined the Petitioner did not establish her proposed endeavor would impact her field more broadly at a level commensurate with national importance.”
“The Petitioner does not, however, specify how her proposed endeavor would impact CMS, CDC, or HHS more broadly to impact her field apart from her compliance with national standards in her work with individual patients and students.”
“The size and growth of the hospitals industry does not establish the national importance of the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor.”
“The Petitioner does not demonstrate how her work as an individual nurse and teacher would significantly address a nationwide shortage of nursing professionals or otherwise impact her field more broadly.”
“Here, the Petitioner has not established that her proposed endeavor would sufficiently extend beyond her individual students to impact her field more broadly at a level commensurate with national importance.”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- business plan · credited
- other · discounted
“does not establish the national importance of the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor”
AAO decision text
Where this case turned
- Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
- Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
- Occupational shortage argument rejected · p1 — argues a labor shortage — the labor-certification question, not Dhanasar
Notable
The AAO reversed the Director's finding on endeavor specificity and substantial merit, but still dismissed the appeal because it found the Petitioner failed to establish national importance, distinguishing her teaching activities using Dhanasar's own facts (teaching did not have national importance in that case either).
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
- Flores v. Garland
- Matter of L-A-C-
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
Petitioner failed to show her specific nursing/teaching endeavor, beyond individual patients/students, would impact the nursing field or economy at a nationally significant scale.
Tie individual professional work to concrete, endeavor-specific broader impact (e.g., new protocols, systemic reach) rather than citing general field/industry statistics or shortages.
vague
public_health · economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · geographic_or_shortage_area · government_interest
person_focused
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