The Petitioner planned to serve as CEO of a Florida LLC assisting U.S. companies to scale sales into other markets using a franchise model and helping existing American franchises improve operations and expand markets.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“The Petitioner has not established that the employment of four to 31 people directly and up to 47 people indirectly shows a significant potential to employ U.S. workers in an industry that employes millions of people.”

“The Petitioner also has not demonstrated that a profit reaching $561,961 and tax payments reaching $486,189 would have a substantial positive economic effect in an industry that contributes $670 billion to the national economy.”

“These articles attest to the importance of franchises and small businesses, but they do not indicate the Petitioner's proposed endeavor has national importance.”

“Our assessment of national importance does not focus on the importance of a field in general, rather it "focuses on the specific endeavor that the foreign national proposes to undertake."”

“The record does not show that the Petitioner's proposed endeavor stands to sufficiently extend beyond his company's clientele to impact his field more broadly in a manner indicative of national importance.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “The Petitioner has not established that the employment of four to 31 people directly and up to 47 people indirectly shows a significant potential to employ U.S. workers”

  AAO decision text
• media · discounted

  “These articles attest to the importance of franchises and small businesses, but they do not indicate the Petitioner's proposed endeavor has national importance.”

  AAO decision text
• recommendation letter · discounted

  “He does not, however, specify how the Petitioner's company would extend beyond its clientele to impact the global consulting market or small businesses generally”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “The Petitioner did not explain the relevance of the book to his proposed endeavor or document any contributions his book has made or would make to the franchise industry.”

  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
• 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

Notable

AAO expressly agreed Petitioner met EB-2 exceptional ability classification and prong 1's substantial merit sub-element; case turned solely on national importance sub-prong of prong 1, with prongs 2 and 3 expressly reserved.

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
• INA 203(b)(2)
• Matter of L-A-C-

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