The Petitioner sought to develop and expand his U.S. company, a wellness/aquatic fitness center combating obesity in children and adults, offering supervised physical exercise and patient personalization services.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the Petitioner must demonstrate the national importance of his specific, proposed endeavor of owning and operating I Irather than the importance of the national initiatives and interests, industries, or fields.”

“the record does not show through supporting documentation how his company stands to sufficiently extend beyond its prospective clients, to impact the industry or the U.S. economy more broadly”

“the business plan does not establish the benefits to the regional or national economy resulting from the company's profits and revenues would reach the level of "substantial positive economic effects"”

“the Petitioner did not demonstrate that such hiring figures would utilize a significant population of workers in the area or would substantially impact job creation and economic growth”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “the record does not show through supporting documentation how his company stands to sufficiently extend beyond its prospective clients”

  AAO decision text
• resume experience · discounted

  “the Petitioner's experience, skills, expertise, and abilities relate to the second prong of the Dhanasar framework”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “The Petitioner's evidence and arguments relate more to the substantial merit aspect of the proposed endeavor.”

  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 explicitly separates the industry/field-based national-initiative arguments (health, physical education) from the specific proposed endeavor, reiterating that alignment with broad national policy goals does not establish national importance of the specific business. The decision also frames dismissal as resting on each stated reason as an independent, alternate basis.

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.

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

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